
Author . 



Title 



Imprint. 



Q} 

;GYPT ASSYRIA GREECE 



O 



a continuous account 

;fr0m papyri, inscriptions, 

i and modern authors. with 

adaptations from the 
greek historians 



'I, 







"lid'' ^'- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



HEROES AND HAPPENINGS 

OF 

EGYPT - ASSYRIA GREECE 



A CONTINUOUS ACCOUNT 
FROM PAPYRI, INSCRIPTIONS, 
AND MODERN AUTHORS, WITH 

ADAPTATIONS FROM THE 
GREEK HISTORIANS 






Ph^ 



Copyright 1910 by 
STELLA E. MYERS 



)GI,A271733 



u- 



It is with tlie kind permission of the publisliers 
that extracts are quoted from the following late 
works: 

Greece, by Harrison — G. P. Putnam's Sons, New 
York and London. 

From Egypt to Japan, by Field — Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons, New York. 

Assyria, by Ragozin — G. P. Putnam's Sons, New 
York and London. 

Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, by Petrie — The 
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 

The Babylonians and Assyrians, by Sayee — 
Charles Scribners' Sons, New York. 

Phoenicia, by Rawlinson — G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
New York and London. 

Jovvett's Translation of Thucydides, (except that 
of the cause of the Peloponnesian War and that on 
pages 73 and 71). — Clarendon Press, Oxford, England. 

Dakyn's Ti-anslation of Hellenica by Xenophon — 
I'.Iacmillan Co., New York. 

Macaulay's Translation of Herodotus (in the bat- 
tle of Thermopylae) — Macmillan Co., New York. 

The Code of Hammurabi, Translated by R. F. Har- 
per — University of Chicago Press. 



EGYPT 

The Great Pyramid. 

Of course the greatest sight around Cairo 
is the Pyramids. It is an event in one's life to 
see these grandest monuments of antiquity. They 
are eight miles from Cairo. 

One can go to the top by steps, but as these 
steps are blocks of stone, many of which are 
four feet high, it is not quite like walking up 
stairs. One could hardly get up at all but with 
the help of the Arabs, who swarm on the ground, 
and make a living by selling their services. 

Our last night in Cairo we spent in riding 
out to Ghizeh by moonlight, and exploring the 
interior of the Great Pyramid. We had already 
been there by day, and climbed to the top, but did 
not then go inside. There is no access but by a 
single narrow passage, four feet wide and high, 
which slopes at a descending angle, so that one 
must stoop very low while he slides down an in- 
clined plane, as if he were descending into a mine 
by a very small shaft. There is not much pleas- 
ure in crouching and creeping along such a pas- 
sage, with a crowd of Arab guides before and 
behind, lighting the darkness with their torches, 
and making the rocky cavern hideous with their 
yells. These creatures fasten on the traveller, 
pulling and pushing, smoking in his face, and 
raising such a dust that he cannot see, and is al- 
most choked, and keeping up such a noise that he 
cannot hear, and can hardly think. One likes a 
little quiet and silence, a little chance for medita- 
tion, when he penetrates the sepulchre of kings, 



2 EGYPT 

where a Pharaoh was laid down to rest four 
thousand years ago. So I left these interior re- 
searches, on our first visit to the Pyramid, to the 
younger members of our party, and contented 
myself with clambering up its sides, and looking 
off upon the desert and the valley of the Nile, 
with Cairo in the distance. 

It is well known that it has been mutilated 
by the successive rulers of Egypt, who have 
stripped off its outer layers of granite to build 
palaces and mosques in Cairo. This process of 
spoliation, continued for centuries, has leduced 
the size of the Pyramid two acres, so that now 
it covers but eleven acres of ground, whereas 
originally it covered thirteen. Outs""de of all this 
was a pavement of granite, extending forty feet 
from the base, wh'ch surrounded the whole. 

The sheik was on hand with his swarthy 
guides around him, and we prepared to enter the 
Pyramid. It was not intended to be entered. 
If it had been so designed — as it is the largest 
building in the world — it would have had a lofty 
gateway in keeping with its enormous propor- 
tions, like the temples of Upper Egypt. But 
it is not a temple, nor a place for assembly or 
for worship, nor even a lofty, vaulted place of 
burial. Except the King's and Queen's cham- 
bers, the whole Pyramid is one mass of stone. 
The only entrance is by the narrow passage al- 
ready described; and even this was walled up so 
as to be concealed. If it were intended for a 
tomb, whoever built it sealed it up, that its secret 
might remain forever inviolate, and that the 
dead might slumber undisturbed until the Judg- 
ment day. It was only by accident that an en- 
trance was discovered. About a thousand years 
ago a Mohammedan ruler, conceiving the idea 
that the Pyramid had been built as a storehouse 
for the treasures of the kings of Egypt, imds'- 
took to break into it, and worked for months to 



THE GREAT PYRAMID 3 

pierce the granite sides, but was about to give 
it up in despair, when the accidental falling- of a 
stone led to the discovery of the passage by 
which one now gains access to the interior. 

We had trusted to the man in authority to 
protect us from the horde of Arabs ; but noth- 
ing could keep back the irrepressible camp-fol- 
lowers, who flocked after us, and when we got 
into the King's chamber we found we had 
twenty-four ! With such a bodyguard, each carry- 
ing a lighted candle, we took up our forward 
march, or rather our forward stoop, for no man 
can stand upright in this low passage. Thus 
bending one after another, like a flock of sheep, 
we vanished from the moonlight. Dr. Grant led 
the way, and, full of the wonders of the con- 
struction of the Pyramid, he called to me, as he 
disappeared down its throat, to look back and 
see how that long tube — longer and larger than 
any telescope that ever was made — pointed 
towards the north star. But stars and moon 
were soon eclipsed, and we were lost in the dark- 
ness of this labyrinth. The descent is easy, in- 
deed it is too easy, for the sides of the passage 
are of polished limestone, smooth as glass, and 
the floor affords but a slight hold for the feet, 
so that as we bent forward we found it difficult 
to keep our balance, and might have fallen from 
top to bottom if we had not had the strong arms 
of our guides to hold us up. With such a pair 
of crutches to lean ' upon, we slid down the 
smooth worn pavement till we came to a huge 
boulder, which blocked our way, around which 
a passage had been cut. Creeping around this, 
pulled and haiied by the Arabs, who lifted us 
over the dangerous places, we were shouldered 
on to another point of rock, and now began our 
ascent along a passage as slippery as that be- 
fore. Here again we should have made poor 
progress alone, with our boots which slipped at 



4 EGYPT 

every moment on the smooth stones, but for the 
Arabs, whose bare feet gave them a better hold, 
and who held us fast. 

And now we are on a level and move along 
a very low passage, crouching almost on our 
hands and knees, till we raise our heads and 
stand in the Queen's Chamber — so called for no 
reason that we know but that it is smaller than 
the King's. 

Returning from this, we find ourselves at 
the foot of the Grand Gallery, or, as it might 
be called. Grand Staircase, which ascends into 
the heart of the Pyramid. This is a magnifi- 
cent hall 157 feet long, 28 feet high, and 7 feet 
wide. But the ascent as before is over smooth 
and polished stone, to climb which is like climb- 
ing a cone of ice. We could not have got on at 
all but for the nimble Arabs, whose bare feet 
enable them to cling to the slippery stone like 
cats, and who, grasping us in their naked arms, 
dragged us forward by main force. This kind 
of bodily exercise soon brought on an excessive 
heat. We were almost stifled. Our faces grew 
red ; I tore off my cravat to keep from choking. 
Still, like a true American, I was willing to en- 
dure anything if only I got ahead, and felt re- 
warded when we reached the top of the Grand 
Gallery, and instead of looking up, looked down. 

From this height we creep along another 
passage till we reach the object of our climbing 
in the lofty apartment called the King's Cham- 
ber. This is the heart of the Great Pyramid — 
the central point for which apparently it was 
built, and where, if anywhere, its secret is to be 
found. At one end lies the sarcophagus, in 
which the great Cheops was buried. It is now 
tenantless, except by such fancies as travellers 
choose to fill it withal. I know not what sudden 
freak of fancy took me just then; perhaps I 
thought. How would it seem to be a king even 



THE GREAT PYRAMID 5 

in his tomb? and instantly I threw myself down 
at full length within the sarcophagus, and lay 
extended, head thrown back, and hands folded 
on my breast, lying still, as great Cheops may 
have lain, when they laid him in his royal house 
of death. It was a soft bed of dust, which, as 
I sank in it, left upon my whole outward man 
a marked impression. It seemed very like or- 
dinary dust, settled from the clouds raised by 
the Arabs in their daily entrances to show the 
chamber to visitors. But it was much more 
poetical to suppose that it was the mouldering 
dust of Cheops himself. 

And now we were all in the King's Cham- 
ber, our oarty of eight, with three times the 
number of Arabs. The latter were at first quite 
noisy, after their usual fashion, but Dr. Grant, 
who speaks Arabic, hushed them with a per- 
emotory command, and they instantly subsided, 
and crouched down by the wall, and sat silent, 
watching our movements. One of the party had 
with him some m.agnesium wire, which he now 
lighted, and which threw a strong glare on the 
sides and on the ceilmg of the room, which, 
whether or not intended for the sepulchre of 
kings, is of massive solidity — faced round with 
red granite, and crossed above with enormous 
blocks of the same rich dark stone. The sar- 
cophagus, which is an oblong chest of red gran- 
ite, in Dr. Grant's opinion, is not a sarcophagus 
at all ; indeed, it looks quite as much like a huge 
bath-tub as a place of burial for one of the 
Pharaohs. He called my attention to the fact 
that it could not have been introduced into the 
Pyramid by any of the known passages. It 
must, therefore, have been built in it. It is also 
a singular fact that it has no cover, as a sar- 
cophagus always has. No mummy was ever 
found in it so far as we have any historic record. 
Tf is certainly a remarkable coincidence, if noth- 



6 EGYPT 

ing more, that it is of the exact size of the Ark 
of the Covenant. 

Poor old Cheops ! What would he have said 
to see such a party disturbing the place of his 
rest at such an hour as this? I looked at my 
watch; it was midnight — an hour when the dead 
are thought to stir uneasily in their graves. 
Might he not have risen in wrath out of his 
sarcophagus to see these frivolous moderns thus 
making merry in the place of his sepulture? 

And now we prepared to descend. I lin- 
gered in the chamber to the last, waiting till all 
had gone — till even the last attendant had 
crawled out and was heard shouting afar off — 
that I might for a moment, at least, be alone in 
the silence and the darkness in the heart of the 
Pyramid ; and then, crouching as before, followed 
slowly the lights that were becoming dimmer and 
dimmer along the low and narrow passage. 

The Great Pyramid stands four-square, its 
four sides facing exactly the four points of com- 
pass — North, South, East, and West. Now the 
chances are a million to one that this could not 
occur accidentally. There is no need to argue 
such a matter. It was certainly done by design, 
and shows that the old Egyptians knew how to 
draw a meridian line, and to take the points of 
compass, as accurately as the astronomers of the 
present day. 

Equally evident is it that they were able to 
measure the solar year as exactly as modern 
astronomers. Taking the sacred cubit as the 
unit of measure there are in each side of the 
Pyramid just 3651/4 cubits, which gives not only 
the number of days in the year, but the six 
hours over ! 

That it was built for astronomical purposes 
seems probable from its very structure. Never 
was there such an observatory in the world. Its 
pinnacle is the loftiest ever placed in the air by 



THE GREAT PYRAMID 7 

human hands. It seems as if the Pyramid were 
built hke the tower of Babel, that its top might 
"touch heaven." It is said that it could not have 
been ascended because its sides were covered 
with polished stone. But may there not have 
been a secret passage to the top? It is hard to 
believe that such an elevation was not made use 
of by a people so much given to the study of the 
stars as were the ancient Egyptians. In some 
way we would believe that the priests and as- 
trologers of Egypt were able to climb to that 
point, where they might sit all night long looking 
at the constellations through that clear and 
cloudless sky. 

There is another very curious fact in the 
Pyramid, that the passage by which it is entered 
points directly to the North Star, and yet not to 
the North Star that now is, but to Alpha Dra- 
conis, which was the North Star four thousand 
years ago. There is one way in which the age 
of the Pyramid is determined, for it is found 
by the most exact calculations that 2170 years 
before Christ, a man placed at the bottom of the 
passage, as at the bottom of a well, and looking 
upward through that shaft, would fix his eye ex- 
actly on the North Star — the pole around which 
was revolving the whole celestial sphere. 

As to the measurement of time, all who have 
visited astronomical observatories know the ex- 
treme and almost infinite pains taken to obtain 
an even temperature for clocks. The slightest 
increase of temperature may elongate the pendu- 
lum, and so affect the duration of a second. But 
here, in the heart of this mountain of stones, the 
temperature is preserved at an absolute equilib- 
rium, so that there is no expansion by heat and 
no contraction by cold. What are all the ob- 
servatories of Greenwich, and Paris, to such a 
rock-built citadel as the Great Pyramid? — From, 
Egypt to Japan, Field, 10-11, 80-91. 



8 EGYPT 

I found repeatedly that the hard stones, 
basalt, granite, and diorite were sawn; and that 
the saw was not a blade, or wire, used with a 
hard power, but was set with fixed cutting 
points, in fact, a jeweled saw. These saws must 
have been as much as nine feet in length, as the 
cuts run lengthwise on the sarcophagi. One of 
the most usual tools was the tubular drill and 
this was also set with fixed cutting points; I 
have a core from inside a drill hole, broken 
away in the working, which shows the spiral 
grooves produced by the cutting points as they 
sunk down into the material ; this is of red gran- 
ite, and there has been no flinching or jumping 
of the tool ; every crystal, quartz, or felspar, has 
been cut through in the most equable way, with 
a clean irresistible cut. An engineer, who knows 
such work with diamond drills as well as any- 
one, said to me, "I should be proud to turn out 
such a finely cut core now" ; and truth to tell : 
modern drill cores cannot hold a candle to the 
Egyptians; by the side of the ancient work they 
look wretchedly scraped out and irregular. — 
Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, Petrie, 26-27. 

Eighteenth Dynasty. 

Thothmes I. — After Thothmes conquered 
to the foot of the Fourth Cataract, he returned 
with the body of the slain Nubian chief, hanging 
with the head downward from the prow of his 
vessel. 

Queen Hatasu. — Hatasu celebrated the 
thirteenth anniversary of her accession to the 
throne by erecting two obelisks of pink granite, 
each ninety-seven and one-half feet high.' She 
placed them in the Temple of Karnak, in a hall 
built by her father. The peaks seem to have 
been capped with copper. The Queen took an 
oath that the stones were of single blocks. 

Thothmes III, her husband, reigned jointly 



THE STATUES OF MEMNON 9 

with her until after her death, when he reigned 
alone. Not being a gallant husband, he built 
masonry around the base of her obelisks to con- 
ceal her inscriptions. He chiseled out her name^ 
wherever he found it in Egypt. , 

Thothmes in. — Upon his coronation 
Thothmes HI took the title 'The Best of 
Beetles." 'Thothmes, who crossed the great 
Bend of [the Euphrates] with might and with 
victory at the head of his army," set up his 
boundary tablet on the east side of that river. 
While in Asia he engaged in an elephant hunt. 
There he captured nine hundred, twenty-four 
chariots, two hundred suits of armor, among 
which was that of two kings, a royal tent with 
elegant furniture, an ebony statue, decorated 
with gold, of one of the kings, and a silver 
statue. 

Amon was the great god of Thebes, the 
capital of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasty 
kings. He had a yearly feast, lasting eleven 
days. Upon one such occasion, Thothmes III 
presented to the god three whole towns captured 
in Syria; other gifts were gold and silver ves- 
sels and valuable stones from his booty obtained 
in Asia. 

The Statues of Memnon. — These statues 
are over three thousand years old. A temple 
built by Amenophis III, whom they represent, 
was once back of them. Each statue was carved 
from a single block of red sandstone, which was 
towed up the Nile from Cairo to Thebes. With 
their pedestals and lost crowns they would be 
nearly seventy feet high. The surface about 
their base has risen over six feet. The one on 
the north was partially wrecked by the earth- 
quake of 27 B. C. and has been built up with 
separate stones. This is called the ''Vocal 
Memnon" as there is an interesting story of its 
singing at dawn each morning for two hundred 



10 EGYPT 

years after the earthquake, or until restored. 

On both sides of the legs of the statues are 
figures of the mother and daughter of the king. 
These little women not reaching to the knees of 
the statues are, however, eighteen feet high. 

Nineteenth Dynasty. 

Ramses II — Statues. — The single stone 
statues of Ramses II erected by himself are the 
largest in the world's history, one having been 
ninety feet high and weighing 18,000,000 pounds. 
Three of his obelisks are in Rome. 

Ramses II — First Known Treaty in the 
World. — The treaty had been drafted and ac- 
cepted by both countries when Hittite ambassa- 
dors brought to the Court of Ramses II the 
treaty inscribed on a silver tablet. Two copies 
have been found as Thebes inscribed on temple 
walls and a Hittite copy on a clay tablet was 
found as late as 1906. Thirteen years later the 
Hittite king visited Egypt upon the occasion of 
the marriage of his daughter. 

Parts of the Treaty. — The great king of 
the Hittites is in covenant with the great prince 
of Egypt, from this very day forward, that there 
may subsist a good friendship and a good under- 
standing between them for evermore. He shall 
be my ally; he shall be my friend. I will be his 
ally; I will be his friend — forever. 

When this [treaty] shall be known [by the 
inhabitants of the land of Egypt and of the land 
of the Hittites, then shall they not offend against 
it, for all that stands written on] the silver tab- 
let, these are the words which will have been ap- 
proved by the company of the gods. — Translation 
of Brugsch. 



BABYLONIi^ 



AccADiANS (Early Inhabitants of Babylonia, 
Then Called Chaldaea) — The Flood. 

I made it a dwelling-house [?] . . . I 
enclosed it. I compacted it six times. Leaks 
for the waters- m the midst of it I cut off. I 
saw the rents, and what was wanting I added. 
.Three sari of bitumen I poured over the outside. 
Three sari of bitumen I poured over the inside. 
Three sari of men, carrying baskets, who carried 
on their heads food, I provided. To [the gods] 
I caused oxen to be sacrified ; I [established of- 
ferings] each day. In [the ship] beer, food, and 
wine [I collected] like the v/aters on a river, and 
[I heaped them up] like the dust [?] of the 
earth and [in the ship] the food with my hand 
I placed. All that I had I heaped together: all 
that I had of silver I heaped together- all that 
I had of gold I heaped together: all that I had 
of the seed of life I heaped together. I brought 
the whole up into the ship: all of my slaves 
. . . the cattle of the field, the beasts of the 
the field, the sons of the people, all of them 
did I bring up. The season Samas . 
spake, saying: ''In the night will I cause the 
heaven to rain destruction. Enter into the midst 
of the ship and close thy door." The season 
came round; he spake, saying: "In the night 
will I cause the heaven to rain destruction." Of 
that day I reached the evening, the day of 
which I watched for with fear. I entered into 



12 BABYLONIA 

the midst of the ship, and shut the door, that 
I might close the ship. The spirits of earth 
carried the flood; in their terribleness they 
sweep through the land; the deluge of Rimmon 
reaches unto heaven ; all that was light to [dark- 
ness] was turned. 

Brother saw not his brother; men knew not 
one another. In heaven the gods feared the 
flood, and sought a refuge; they ascended to the 
heaven of Anu. The gods, like a dog in his ken- 
nel, crouched down in a heap. Istar cries like 
a mother. Then the gods were weeping with 
her because of the spirits of earth; the gods on 
a throne were seated in weepmg; covered were 
their lips because of the coming evil. Six days 
and nights the wind, the flood, and the storm go 
on overwhelming. The seventh day when it ap- 
proached the storm subsided; the flood which 
had fought against [men] like an armed host 
was quieted. The sea began to dry, and the wind 
and the flood ended. I watched the sea making 
a noise, and the whole of mankind was turned 
to clay; like reeds the corpses floated. I opened 
the window, and the light smote upon my face ; 
I stopped and sat down ; I weep ; over my face 
flow my tears. I watch the regions at the edge 
of the sea ; a district rose twelve measures high. 
To the land of Nizir steered the ship; in t';e 
mountain of Nizir stopped the ship, and it was 
not able to pass over it. The seventh day wh-n 
it approached I sent forth a dove, and it left. 
The dove went and returned, and found no rest- 
ing-place, and it came back. Then I sent forth 
a swallow, and it left. The swallow went and 
returned, and found no resting-place, anrl it 
came back. I sent forth a raven, and it left. 
The raven went and saw the carr'on on th"" 
water, and it ate, it swam, it wandered away; it 
did not return. I sent [the animals] forth t^ 
the four winds, I sacrificed a sacrifice. I built 



THE FLOOD 13 

an altar on the peak of the mountains. I set 
vessels by sevens underneath them ; I spread 
reeds, pine-wood, and spices. The gods smelt 
the savour; the gods smelt the good savour; the 
gods gathered like flies over the sacrifices. There- 
upon the great goddess at her approach lighted 
up the rainbow which Anu had createa accord- 
ing to his glory. The crystal brilliance of those 
gods before me may I not forget ; those days I 
have thought of, and never may I forget them. 
May the gods come to my altar ; but may Bel not 
come to my altar, since he did not consider but 
caused the flood, and my people he assigned to 
the abyss. When thereupon Bel at his approach 
saw the ship, Bel stopped ; he was filled with 
anger against the gods and the spirits of heaven : 
"Let none come forth alive ! Let no man live 
in the abyss !" Adar opened his mouth and 
spake, he says to the warrior Bel: "Who ex- 
cept Ea can form a design? Yea, Ea knows, and 
all things he communicates." Ea opened his 
mouth and spake, he says to the warrior Bel : 
"Thou, O warrior prince of the gods, why, why 
didst thou not consider but causedst a flood? 
Let the doer of sin bear his sin, let the doer of 
wickedness bear h's wickedness. May the just 
prince not be cut ofl", may the faithful not be 
[destroyed]. Instead of causing a flood, let lions 
increase, that men may be minished ; instead of 
causing a flood, let hyaenas increase, that men 
may be minished; instead cf causing a flood, let 
a famine happen, that men may be [wasted] ; 
instead of causing a flood, let plague increase, 
that men may be [reduced]!" When Bel had 
again taken counsel with himself, he went up 
into the midst of the ship. He took my hand 
and bid me ascend, even me he bid ascend; he 
united ray wife to my side ; he turned himself to 
us and joined himself to us in covenant; he 
blesses us [thus] : "Hitherto' Sisuthros has been 



14 BABYLONIA 

a mortal man, but now Sisuthros and his wife 
are united together in being raised to be like the 
gods ; yea, Sisuthros shall dwell afar off at the 
mouth of the rivers." They took me, and afar 
off the mouth of the rivers they made me dwell. 
— Translation of Professor Haupt. 

SuMERiANS (Other Inhabitants of Chaldaea) 
— Law. 

If a son denies his father, his hair shall be 
cut, he shall be put into chains and sold for sil- 
ver. If he denies his mother, his hair also shall 
be cut, city and land shall collect together and 
put him in prison. 

Babylonian Omens. 

[If a blue dog enters into a palace, that 
palace] is burned. 

[If] a spotted dog enters into the palace, 
that palace its peace to the enemy gives. 

[If] a yellow dog into a temple enters, that 
temple sees plenty. 

Hammurabi. 

Hammurabi, the sixth king of early Baby- 
Jon, built a canal for irrigation. 

This letter belongs to the time of his reign: 

"To my father, thus says Zimri-eram : May 
the Sun-god and Merodach grant thee everlast- 
ing life ! May your health be good ! I write to 
ask you how you are ; send me back news of your 
health. I am at present at Dur-sin on the canal. 
In the place where I am living there is nothing 
to be had for food. So I am sealing up and 
sending you three-quarters of a silver shekel. In 
return for the money, send some good fish and 
other provisions for me to eat." 

Three pieces of a polished black stone were 
discovered at Susa, Persia, in 1902. One of the 
oldest set of laws was engraved on the stone, 
from which these are taken : 



HAMMURABI 15 

If a fire break out in a man's house and a 
man who goes to extinguish it cast his eye on 
the furniture of the owner of the house, and 
take the furniture of the owner of the house, 
that man shall be thrown into that fire. 

If a man owe a debt and Adad (the Storm 
God) inundate his field and carry away the 
produce, or, through lack of water, grain have 
not grown in the field, in that year, he shall not 
make any return of grain to the creditor, he shall 
alter his contract-tablet and he shall not pay the 
interest for that year. 

If a man neglect to strengthen his dyke and 
do not strengthen it, and a break be m.ade in his 
. dyke and the water carry away the farm-land ; 
the man in whose dyke the break has been made 
shall restore the grain which he has damaged. 

If the wife of a man have gadded about, 
have neglected her house and have belittled her 
husband, they shall throw that woman into the 
water. 

If a pliysician operate on a man for a severe 
wound with a bronze lancet and cause the man's 
death; or open an abscess [in the eye] of a man 
with a bronze lancet and destroy the man's eye, 
they shall cut ofi" his fingers. 

If a builder build a house for a man and 
do not make its construction firm, and the house 
which has been built collapse and cause the death 
of the owner of the house, that builder shall be 
put to death. 

If a boatman build a boat for a man and 
he do not make its construction seaworthy and 
that boat meet with disaster in the same year in 
which it was put into commission, the boatman 
shall reconstruct that boat and he shall 
strengthen it at his own expense and he shall 
give the boat when strengthened to the owner of 
the boat. 



16 BABYLONIA 

If a man hire his boat to a boatman and 
the boatman be careless and he sink or wreck 
the boat, the boatman shall replace the boat to 
the owner of the boat. 

—Translation of Prof. R. F. Harper 



ASSYRIA 



TiGLATH-PlLESER I — DESCRIPTION OF A 

Conquest. — I burned, I threw down, I dug up. 
My chariots and warriors I took. The 
difficult mountains and their inaccessible paths 
with picks of bronze I split. A pontoon for the 
passage of my chariots and army I contrived. 
The Tigris I crossed. Their fighting men, in the 
midst of the mountains, I flung to the ground 
like sling-stones. Their corpses over the Tigris 
and the high places of the mountains I spread. 
In those days the armies . . . , which for 
the preservation and help of the land 
had come, like a moon-stone I laid low. The 
corpses of their fighting men into heaps in the 

ravines of the mountains I heaped up 

[The king's] troops, 180 bronze plates, 5 bowls 
of copper, along with their gods, gold [and] 
silver, the choicest of their property, I removed. 
The city itself and its palace, with fire 
I burned, I pulled down, [and] dug up. 

AssuRNAZiRPAL— The Chase.— Assurnazir-' 
pal interrupts the account of his military 
achievem.ents to record, for the benefit of pos- 
terity, that on one occasion he slew fifty large 
white bulls on the left bank of the Euphrates, 
and captured eight of the same animals; while, 
on another, he killed twenty ostriches (?), and 
took captive the same number. Assurnazirpal 
appears, however, to have possessed a menagerie 
park in the neighborhood of Nineveh, in which 



18 ASSYRIA 

were maintained a variety of strange and curi- 
ous animals. Animals — perhaps elephants — 
were received as tribute from the Phoenicians 
during his reign, on at least one occasion, and 
placed in this enclosure, where (he tells us) they 
throve and bred. So well was his taste for such 
curiosities known that even neighboring sov- 
ereigns sought to gratify it; and the king of 
Egypt sent him a present of strange animals 
when he was in Southern Syria, as a compliment 
likely to be appreciated. — Seven Great Mon- 
archies, I, Rawlinson. 

TiGLATH-PiLESER II. — A military' adven- 
turer seized the throne and, that he might bor- 
row renown or show the kind of a ruler whom 
he took for a model, he called himself Tiglath- 
Pileser II, although he lived five hundred years 
after the first Tiglath-Pileser. 

Tiglath-Pileser II records the voluntary sub- 
mission of a ruler in Chaldaea in the following 
manner : 

"King of the sea-coast, from which to the 
kings, my fathers, formerly none came and kissed 
their feet — terrible fear of Asshur, my lord, 
overwhelmed him and he came and kissed my 
feet; gold, the dust of his country, in abundance, 
cups of gold, instruments of gold, the product of 
the sea, . . . costly garments, gums, oxen, 
and sheep, his tribute, I received." 

The Chaldaean seems to have used th^'s plan 
as a means for gaining strength for resisting 
Assyria. 

Sargon II. — Transportation of Captives. 
— The Assyrian conquerors are great movers of 
men. They pride themselves upon transplanting 
nations like trees, and upon sending the tribes 
from the North to the South, from the East to 
the West. After each of their campaigns thou- 
sands of captives are exiled, and go to colonize 
some distant country, of which the native popu- 



SARGON II 19 

lation will probably fill the vacant places in their 
own land on the morrow. Sargon filled his city 
with people gathered from the four quarters of 
the world, from mountains and plains, from 
cities and deserts; then he set over them, to keep 
them all in check, a handful of Assyrian soldiers 
and magistrates. Now, after sixty years have 
passed, the descendants of these forced colonists 
have adopted the language and customs of their 
conquerors. They might be taken for Assyrians 
from their speech and dress, but their features 
betray their foreign extraction; one still retains 
the aquiline profile of the Hebrews of Samaria, 
another has the fair hair and blue eyes of the 
Medes. — Ancient Egypt and Assyria, Maspero, 
202. 

Sargon II — Statesmanship. — Once [Sar- 
gon] had made any people "one with the 
Assyrians," he adopted them as his natural-born 
subjects, and extended to them the care to which 
he considered these entitled. And he had very 
strict notions of the duties of a sovereign to his 
people, duties which he himself describes with 
some detail. He calls himself — 

"The inquiring king, the bearer of gracious 
words, who applied his mind to restore settle- 
ments fallen into decay, and cultivate the neigh- 
boring lands, who directed his thoughts to make 
high rocks, on which in all eternity no vegeta- 
t^'on had sprouted, to bear crops; who set his 
heart on making a waste place that under the 
kings his fathers had never known an irrigation 
cphpI, to bring forth grain and resound with 
glad shouts; to clear the neglected beds of water 
courses, open dykes and feed them from above 
and below with waters abundant as the flood of 
the sea; a king of open mind, of an understand- 
ing eye for all things, grown up in council and 
wisdom, and discernment, to fill the storehouses 
of the broad land of Asshur with food and pro- 



20 ASSYRIA 

visions to overflowing, as beseems the king; not 
to let oil, that gives life to man and heals sores, 
become dear in my land, and regulate the price 
of sesame as well as of wheat." — Assyria, Rago- 
zin, 291. 

Sennacherib — Inscription on a Clay 
Prism. — The people, . . . who like the nests 
of eagles on the highest summits and wild crags 
of the . . . mountains had fixed their dwell- 
ings, refused to bow down to my yoke. At the 
foot of [the mountain] I pitched my camp : with 
native guides who had kissed my feet and a band 
of my soldiers who were irregulars, I, like the 
leader Bull, took the front, of them. . . .In 
the mountain valleys and through flooded lands 
I traveled in my chariot: but in places which for 
my chariot were dangerous I alighted on my 
feet; and like a mountain goat among the lofty 
cliffs I clambered up them. Where my knees 
took rest, upon a mountain rock I sat down, and 
water, cold even to freezing, to assuage my thirst 
I drank. To the tops of the mountains I pursued 
them and completely defeated them. 

Sennacherib — Another Inscription on a 
Prism.— And Hezekiah of Judah, who had not 
submitted to my yoke — fortj^-six of his strongly 
walled cities, together with innumerable small 
places in the vicinity, with assaults of battering- 
rams, and the blows of siege-engines — I besieged 
and I conquered. 200,150 persons, small and 
great, male and female, horses, mules, camels,, 
oxen and sheep without number from their midst 
I brought and reckoned as booty. Himself 
[Hezekiah], like a bird in a cage, in Jerusalem, 
his royal city, I penned up — I diminished his 
territory. As for Hezekiah himself, the terror of 
the glory of my sovereignty overwhelmed him- 
Thirty talents of gold, and eight hundred talents 
of silver — I caused to be brought after me to 
Nineveh my royal city. 



HUNTING OF BISON 21 

ESARHADDON. — Esarhaddon had two older 
brothers who were jealous because the younger 
son was favored above themselves in their 
father's will and they murdered Sennacherib. 

"I, Sennacherib, king of multitudes, king of 
Assyria, bequeath armlets of gold, quantities of 
ivory, a platter of gold, ornaments, and chains 
for the neck, all these beautiful things of which 
there are heaps, and three sorts of precious 
stones . . .to Esarhaddon, my son, . . . 
The treasure is deposited in the house of Amuk." 

Sennacherib had conquered Babylon and 
razed it to the ground. The river had been filled 
with its ruins. Esarhaddon rebuilt the city and 
tried to win the good will of the inhabitants by 
making it his royal residence for half the year. 

He was called the "fierce king." Egypt was 
overrun by his armies for about twenty years. 
Thebes' temples were despoiled and much treas- 
ure was carried to Nineveh; two obelisks were 
sent as trophies. 

Hunting of Bison. — These buffs [bison] 
are taken alive with more difficulty than any 
other wild beast : for there are not any nets 
strong enough to hold them. They are, there- 
fore, hunted in the following manner: the hunt- 
ers choose a steep place, which terminates in a 
hollow. This place they first fortify with a 
strong inclosure, then they cover the steep and 
the plain near the steep with the hides of oxen 
recently slain ; but if they have not a sufficiency 
of these they lubricate old hides with oil. After 
this, very skillful horsemen drive the buffs into 
this inclosure, who, falling through the slipperi- 
ness of the hides, are hui'led headlong to the bot- 
tom of the plain. Here they leave them for four 
or five days, till they are debilitated by weari- 
ness and hunger, and are considerably tamed. 
Then those who are skilled in the art of taming 
these animals place before them, while they are 



22 ASSYRIA 

lying in this weak condition, the fruit of a pine-, 
nut, having first of all stripped it of the inward 
skin, for at that time the buffs do not desire any 
other food. And, last of all, they bind them, 
and bring them away from the hollow. — Pau- 
sanias. 

Downfall of Assyria. — The Medes were 
approaching Nineveh. The frontier cities had 
been stormed, and the enemy was approaching 
like an inundation over the whole country. In 
their despair the Assyrian rulers ordered a 
solemn fast of 100 days and 100 nights and be- 
sought the Sun-god to pardon their sin. But all 
was in vain. The measure of the iniquities of 
Assyria was filled up; the time had come when 
the desolater should himself be desolate, and 
Nineveh, as God's prophets had threatened, was 
laid utterly waste.- — Fresh Light From the An^ 
cieht Monuments, Sayce, 126. 



THE HEBPIE^WS 

Solomon. — For the building- of the temple 
there were employed: 

70,000 "bearers of burdens." 
80,000 "hewers in the mountains." 
30,000 to cut cedars and break stone in 
Lebanon. 



180,000 Total. 

Hiram, King of Tyre, made loans in gold to 
Solomon, "according to all his desire." After 
twenty years Solomon was unable to pay the debt 
in money and turned over to Hiram twenty 
cities near the border separating the two king- 
doms. 

The temple of Solomon had a height of from 
sixty or seventy feet to one hundred, forty feet. 
The stones were laid together without cement. 
One of them measured over thirty-eight feet. 

The great bowl or laver of the temple was 
forty-seven feet in circumference and could con- 
tain 17,000 gallons. 



PH:oE:Nricii5L 

+ + t 

King Hiram. — What is taken to be the sar- 
cophagus of King Hiram I is a hollowed single 
stone twelve feet long and six feet in each of the 
other directions. The solid lid is three feet thick 
and, it seems, has never been lifted. A hole has 
been made in one end of the empty sarcophagus. 

Trade. — The coast-land has only a few miles 
to expand in, so that even the streams are not 
really rivers, but rather rushing, leaping tor- 
rents. Never had nation so scant space to grow 
and multiply in, with such utter impossibility of 
spreading on any side, . 

Stinted for space on dry land, [Tyre and Sidon] 
early betook themselves to the water, became the 
best mariners and shipwrights in the world, built 
almost as many ships as houses, and must have 
come to look on the sea as, their real home, since 
even their dwellings were in great part con- 
structed more on water than on land. Of all the 
staple articles of the Phoenicians' export trade, 
the one which created the widest demand and 
fetched the highest prices was their purple dye — 
an article, too, which could be had only from 
them. The Phoenicians jealously guarded the 
secret of it, and no one else could make it. 

The costliest, most perfect piece of woolen 
goods increased in value tenfold on emerging 
from their vats. And robes of Sidonian or 
Tyrian purple became an almost necessary at- 
tribute of royalty and of worship, the adornment 
of temples, the distinctive badge of the high- 



TRADE 25 

born of all nations, so that the less wealthy or 
more thrifty, as in later time sthe Romans, if 
they could not afford or condemned the expense 
of the lordly luxury, still adorned at least the 
hem of their garments with a more or less wide 
band of purple, according to the wearer's rank. 

Of this fluid, the raw material, it is recorded 
that three hundred pounds were needed to dye 
fifty pounds of wool. Clearly, at this rate the 
hom.e fisheries, however abundant, had to be ex- 
hausted some day, and when the mussel began 
to grow scarce, the fishers followed it up the 
coast 'n t :eir boats. Jt was soon discovered 
that the entire coast of Asia Minor swarmed 
with the precious shell-fish; then ships were 
equipped and sent or. lisaing t^ i s, much as 
whalers are now. Thus, from station to station, 
fish'ng, tiading, exploring, they were drawn far 
to the noith, as far as the Hellespont. But this 
wrs rrt cIl. It appears that in those days that 
particular kind of mussel absolutely filled the 
waters not only of the Asiatic coast, but of all 
the islands of Northern Africa and Southern 
Spain. From island, then, to island the Phoe- 
nicians advanced, always in pursuit of their in- 
valuable "raw material." — Assyria, Ragozin, 78 
80-83. 

The coloring matter is contained in a sac 
or ve'n which begins at the head of the [snail] 
and follows the tortuous line of the body as it 
twists through the spiral shell. The matter is a 
liquid of a creamy consistency; on extraction, 
however, and exposure to the light it becomes 
first green and then purple. If this liquid be 
carefrlly extracted by a hook or a pointed pencil, 
and applied to wool, linen, or cotton, and the ma- 
terial be then exposed to strong light, it becomes 
successively green, blue, red, purple-red, and by 
wash'ng in soap and water a bright crimson, 
which last is permanent. — Piioenicia, Rawlinson. 



26 PHOENICIA 

We hear of the regular trips ' of Phbenician 
•ships to the "Tin Islands." Thus they had a 
station on the Isle of Wight, in the center of the 
island, where it rises to a considerable eminence, 
commanding the rest. The sight was so cleverly 
chosen that when the Romans came, a thousand 
'years later, they built a fort on the same spot. 

They were the only importers of anothe'r 
northern produce, the yellow amber of the Baltic 
—-merely a fancy article, it is true, an orna- 
'mental luxury, but not the less in great and gen- 
eral demand, and fetching extravagant prices.— 
'Assyria, Ragozin, 91-92. 



GREECE 

Lycurgus — Laws. 

Setting sail from Greece, Lycurgus first ar- 
rived at Crete, where, having considered their 
several forms of government, and got an ac- 
quaintance with the principal men amongst them, 
some of their laws he very much approved of, 
and resolved to make use of them in his own 
country. 

From Crete he sailed to Asia, with design, 
as is said, to examine the difference betwixt the 
manners and rules of life of the Cretans, which 
were very sober and temperate, and those of the 
lonians, a people of sumptuous and delicate hab- 
its, and so form a judgment. 

Lycurgus was much missed at Sparta, and 
often sent for, for "Kings indeed we have," they 
said, "who wear the marks and assume the titles 
of royalty, but as for the qualities of their minds, 
they have nothing by which they are to be dis- 
tinguished from their subjects." 

Amongst the many changes and alterations 
which Lycurgus made, the first and of greatest 
importance was the establishment of the senate, 
which, having a power equal to the king's in mat- 
ters of great consequence, gave steadiness and 
safety to the commonwealth. For the state, 
which before had no firm basis to stand upon, 
but leaned one while towards an absolute mon- 
archy, when the kings had the upper hand, and 
another while towards a nure democracy, when 
the people had the better, found in this establish- 



28 GREECE 

ment of the senate a central weight, like ballast 
in a ship, which always kept things in a just 
equilibrium. As for the number of twenty-eight 
in the senate, perhaps there is some mystery 
in the number, which consists of seven multiplied 
by four. Lycurgus was of opinion that orna- 
ments were so far from advantaging them in 
their counsels that they were rather a hindrance, 
by diverting their attention from the business be- 
fore them to statues and pictures, and roofs curi- 
ously fretted. 

The people then being assembled in the 
open air, it was not allowed to any one of their 
order to give his advice, but only either to ratify 
or reject what should be propounded to them by 
the king or senate. But because it fell out after- 
wards that the people, by adding or omitting 
words, distorted and perverted the sense of prop- 
ositions, there was inserted into the grand cov- 
enant the following clause : That if the people 
decide crookedly it should be lawful for the elders 
and leaders to refuse ratification, and dismiss 
the people as depravers and perverters of their 
counsel. 

Those who succeeded Lycurgus found the 
government of the few still too strong and dom- 
inant, and to check its high temper and its vio- 
lence put a bit in its mouth, which was the power 
of the ephors. 

His next task, and, indeed, the most hazard- 
ous he ever undertook, was the making a new 
division of their lands. For there was an ex- 
treme inequality amongst them, and their state 
was overloaded with a multitude of indigent per- 
sons, while its whole wealth had centered upon 
a very few. To the end, therefore, that he might 
expel from the state arrogance and envy, luxury 
and crime, and those yet more inveterate d^'seases 
of want and superfluity, he obtained of them to 
renounce their properties and to consent to a 



LAWS OF LYCURGUS 29 

new division of the land, and that they should 
live all together on an equal footing; merit to be 
their only road to eminence, and the disgrace of 
evil, and credit of worthy acts, their one measure 
of difference between man and man. 

Not contented with this, he resolved to make 
a division of their movables, too, that there 
might be no odious distinction or inequality left 
amongst them; but finding that it would be very 
dangerous to go about openly, he took another 
course, and defeated their avarice by the follow- 
ing stratagem : he commanded that all gold and 
silver coin should be called in, and that only a 
sort of money made of iron should be current, a 
great weight and quantity of which was very 
little worth; so that to lay up twenty or thirty 
pounds there was required a pretty large closet, 
and, to remove it, nothing less than a yoke of 
oxen. With the diffusion of this money at once 
a number of vices were banished from Lacedae- 
mon, for who would rob another of such a coin? 
Who would unjustly detain or take by force, or 
accept as a bribe, a thing which it was not easy 
to hide, nor a credit to have, nor, indeed, of any 
use to cut in pieces? For when it was just red- 
hot they quenched it in vinegar, and by that 
means spoilt it, and made it almost incapable of 
being worked. 

In the next place, he declared an outlawry 
of all needless and superfluous arts; but here he 
might almost have spared his proclamation; the 
money being of iron it was scarcely portable, 
neither, if they should take the means to export 
it, would it pass amongst the other Greeks who 
ridiculed it. So there was now no more means 
of purchasing foreign goods and small wares. 

It need not be said that upon the prohibition 
of gold and silver all lawsuits irnmediately 
ceased, for there was now neither avarice nor 
poverty amongst them, but equality, where 



28 GREECE 

everyone's wants were supplied, and independ- 
ence, because those wants were so small. 

And in this way they became excellent 
artists in common, necessary things; bedsteads, 
chairs and tables and such like staple utensils in 
a family were admirably well made there. 

The third and most masterly stroke of this 
great lawgiver, by which he struck a yet more 
effectual blow against luxury and the desire of 
riches, was the ordinance he made, that they 
should all eat in common, of the same bread and 
same meat, and of kinds that were specified, and 
should not spend their lives at home, laid on 
costly couches at splendid tables, delivering 
themselves up into the hands of their tradesmen 
and cooks, to fatten them in corners, like greedy 
brutes, and to ruin not their minds only, but 
their very bodies, which, enfeebled by indulgence 
and excess, would stand in need of long sleep, 
warm bathing, freedom from work, and, in a 
word, of as much care and attendance as if they 
were continually sick. For the rich, being obliged 
to go to the same table with the poor, could not 
make use of or enjoy their abundance, nor so 
much as please their vanity by looking at or dis- 
playing it. So that the common proverb, that 
the god of riches is blind, was nowhere in all 
the world literally verified but in Sparta. There, 
indeed, he was not only blind, but, like a picture, 
without either life or motion. Nor were they al- 
lowed to take food at home first, and then attend 
the public tables, for everyone had an eye upon 
those who did not eat and drink like the rest, 
and reproached them with being dainty and ef- 
feminate. 

As to their public repasts, they met by com- 
panies of fifteen, more or less, and each of them 
stood bound to bring in monthly a bushel of 
meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, 
two pounds and a half of figs, and some very 



LAWS OF LYCURGUS 31 

small sum of money to buy flesh or fish with. 
Besides this, when any of them made sacrifice 
to the gods, they always sent dole to the com- 
mon hall; and, likewise, when any of them had 
been hunting, he sent thither a part of the veni- 
son he had killed, for these two occasions were 
the only excuses allowed for supping at home. 
Their most famous dish was the black broth. 

They used to send their children to these 
tables as. to schools of temperance; here they 
were instructed m state affairs by listening to 
experienced statesmen ; here they learnt to con- 
verse with pleasantry, to make jests and then 
take them without ill humor. It was customary 
also for the eldest man in the company to say 
to each of them as they came in, "Through this" 
(pointing to the door) "no words go out." When 
anyone had a desire to be admitted into any of 
these little societies, he was to go through the 
following probation : Each man in the company 
took a little ball of soft breach, which they were 
to throw into a deep basin, which a waiter car- 
ried round upon his head; those that liked the 
person to be chosen dropped their ball into the 
basm without altering its figure, and those who 
disliked him pressed it betwixt their fingers and 
made it flat; and this signified as much as a 
negative voice. 

It was ordained that the ceilings of their 
houses should only be wrought by the axe, and 
their gates and doors smoothed only by the saw. 
Luxury and a house of this kind could not well 
be companions. For a man must have a less 
than ordinary share of sense that would furnish 
such plain and common rooms with silver-footed 
couches and purple coverlets and gold and silver 
plate. Doubtless he had good reason to think 
that they would proportion their beds to their 
houses, and their coverlets to their beds, and the 
rest of their goods and furniture to these. 



32 GREECE 

To conclude, he bred up his citizens in such 
a way that they neither would nor could live by 
themselves ; they were to make themselves one 
with the public good, and, clustering like bees 
around their commander, by their zeal and pub- 
lic spirit carried all but out of themselves, and 
devoted wholly to their country. What their sen- 
timents were will better appear by a few of their 
sayings. Paedaretus, not being admitted into 
the list of the three hundred, returned home with 
a joyful face, well pleased to find that there were 
in Sparta three hundred better men than him- 
self. 

Lycurgus would never reduce his laws into 
writing. For he thought that the most material 
points, and such as most directly tended to the 
public welfare, baing imDrinted on the hearts of 
their youth by a good discipline, would be sure 
to remain. 

Lycurgus, it is true, being the eleventh from 
Hercules, and having reigned many years in 
Lacedaemon, had got a great reputation and 
friends and power, which he could use in model- 
ling his state," and applying force more than per- 
suasion, insomuch that he lost his eye in the 
scuffle, was able to employ the most effectual 
means for the safety and harmony of a state, by 
not permitting any to be poor or rich in his com- 
monwealth. — Plutarch, Lycurgus. 

This, too, must be borne in mind, that in 
other states equals m age, for the most part, as- 
sociate together, and such an atmosphere is little 
conducive to modesty. Whereas in Sparta, Lycur- 
gus was careful so to blend the ages that the 
younger men must benefit largely by the experi- 
ence of the elders. Amonst other good results 
obtained through this outdoor system of meals 
may be mentioned these : There is the necessity 
of walking home when a meal is over, and a con- 
sequent anxiety not to be caught tripping under 



SOLON'S REFORMS 33 

the influence of wine, since they all know, of 
course, that the supper table must be presently 
abandoned and that they must move as freely in 
the dark as in the day, even the help of a torch 
to guide the steps being forbidden to all on active 
service. 

At any rate, it would be hard to discover a 
healthier or mo:e completely developed human 
being, physically speaking, than the Spartan. 

The soldier had a crimson colored uniform 
and a heavy shield of bronze. Lycurgus further 
permitted those who were about the age of early 
manhood to wear their hair long. For, as he 
conceived, they would appear of larger stature, 
more free and indomitable, and of a moie ter- 
rible aspect. 

Il stead of softening their feet with shoe ox 
sandal, his rule was to make them hardy through 
going barefoot. This habit, if practiced, would, 
as he believed, enable them to scale heights mora 
easily and clamber down precipices with less dan- 
ger. In fact, with his feet so trained the young 
Spartan would leap and spring and run faster 
unshod than another shod in the ordinary way. 
Furthermore, in his desire firmly to implant in 
their youthful souls a root of modesty, he im- 
posed upon these bigger boys a special rule. In 
the veiy 'streets they were to keep their two 
hands within the folds of their coat ; they were 
to walk in silence and without turning their 
heads to gaze, now here, now there. You might 
SLore' fxpfct a stone imcgf^ to find vo'ce than 
one of those Spartan youths; to divert the eyes 
of some bronze statue were less difficult. — 
Xencphcn. 

Solon — Reforms. 

The disparity of fortune between the rich 
and the poor, at that time, in Athens, reached 
its height, so that the city seemed to be in a 



34 GREECE 

truly dangerous condition, and no other means 
for freeing it from disturbances and settling it 
to be possible but a despotic power. All the peo- 
ple were indebted to the rich, and either they 
tilled their land for their creditors, paying them 
a sixth part of the increase, or else they engaged 
their body for the debt, and might be seized and 
either sent into slavery at home, or sold to 
strangers ; some were forced to sell their chil- 
dren or fly their country to avoid the cruelty of 
their creditors; but the most part and the 
bravest of them began to combine together and 
encourage one another to stand to it, to choose a 
leader, to liberate the condemned debtors, divide 
the land, and change the government. 

Then the wisest of the Athenians, perceiving 
Solon was of all men the only one not implicated 
in the troubles, that he had not joined in the ex- 
actions of the rich, and was not involved in the 
. necessities of the poor, pressed him to succoi" the 
commonwealth and compose the differences. — 
Plutarch, Solon. 

There had been an assembly called an ec- 
clesia which had ex'sted as far back as Homer, 
but which Solon, for the first time popularly 
utilized and made an organic part of the state. He 
touched it and, as if by magic, it became trans- 
formed. The election of archons, or rulers, the 
right of passing laws, and the right of mak- 
ing magistrates responsible and calling them to 
account for what they had done while in offize, 
accrued to it, and gave the people, you see, prac- 
tically limitless powers. Any man born at 
Athens of poor parents, whether he belonged 
to a clan or not, had a right to vote in this 
assembly. But Solon was no fool; he did not 
intend that everybody should spring to his legs 
and propose this, that, and the other confused 
or contradictory law while the ecclesia was in 
session. On the contrary; he carefully estab- 



SOLON'S REFORMS 35 

lished that there should be a council committee 
of four hundred men elected, whose duty it was 
to prepare the business that should come be- 
fore the assembly, and nothing was to come be- 
fore the assembly as business that had not been 
selected and agreed upon by the council or com- 
mittee. . . . These council or committee- 
men were elected annually by the people. 

The earlier assemblies met in one of the 
lovliest spots in Athens — on the Pnyx, a semi- 
circular hill southwest of the Areopagus, over- 
looking the shining temples, the crowded marts, 
the busy streets, the brilliant porticos of the 
antique city. 

Many who were in exile, sold as slaves in 
foreign lands, were joyfully brought back, lib- 
erated, and reinstated as citizens. No wonder, 
therefore, that Solon became wonderfully popu- 
lar as a friend of the people, who, being a friend 
in need, was a friend indeed. The glorious 
edict dates from Solon's day, that no Athenian 
should ever again be sold into slavery or should 
surrender his freedom for a debt. — Greece, Har- 
rison, 195. 

He repealed all Draco's laws, except those 
concerning homicide, because they were too 
severe, and the punishments too great; for death 
had been appointed for almost all offences, in- 
somuch that those that were convicted of idle- 
ness were to die, and those that stole a cab- 
bage or an apple were to suffer even as villains 
that com.mitted sacrilege or murder. So that 
one in after time, v/as thought to have said 
very happily, that Draco's laws were written 
not with ink but blood; and he himself, being 
once asked why he made death the punishment 
of most offences, replied, "Small ones deserve 
that, and I have no higher for the greater 
crimes." 

Am.cngst his other laws, one is very peculiar 



36 GREECE 

and surprising, which disfranchises all who 
stand neuter in a sedition; for it seems he 
would not have any one remain insensible and 
regardless of the public good, and securing his 
private affairs, glory that he has no feeling of 
t]ie distempers of his country; but at once join 
with the good party and those that have the 
light upon their side, assist and venture with 
them, rather than keep out of harm's way and 
v/atch who would get the better. 

The bride was to have three suits of clothes, 
a little inconsiderable household stuff, and that 
was all; for he would not have marriages con- 
tracted for gain or an estate, but for pure love. 

Another commendable law of Solon's is that 
which forbids men to speak evil of the dead; for 
it is pious to think the deceased sacred, and 
just, not to meddle with those that are gone, and 
politic, to prevent the perpetuity of discord. He 
likewise forbade' them to speak evil of the liv- 
ing in the temples, the courts of justice, the 
public offices, or at the games, or else to pay 
three drachmas to the person, and two to the 
public. For never to be able to control passion 
shows a weak nature and ill-breeding. Mourners 
tearing themselves to raise pity and set up wail- 
ings he forbade. 

Observing the city to be filled with per- 
sons that flocked from all parts into Attica for 
security of living, and that most of the coun- 
try v/as barren and unfruitful, and that traders 
at sea import nothing to those that could give 
them nothing in exchange, he turned his citi- 
zens to trade, and made a law that no son be 
obliged to relieve a father who had not bred 
him up to any calling. 

In the valuation for sacrifices, a sheep and 
a bushel were both estimated at a drachma ; the 
victor in the Isthmian games, was to have for 
reward an hundred drachmas ; the conquerer in 



SOLON'S REFORMS 37 

the Olympian, five hundred. 

Since the country has but few rivers, lakes, 
or large springs, and many used wells which 
they had dug, there was a law made, that, where 
thc:e was a public v/ell within four furlongs, 
all should draw at that; but when it was farther 
off, they should try and procure a well of their 
own; and if they had dug ten fathoms deep and 
could find no water, they had liberty to fetch a 
pitcherful of four and a half gallons in a day 
from their neighbors' ; for he thought it pru- 
dent to make provision against want, but not to 
Giipply lazmess. 

He showed skilled in his orders about plant- 
ing, for any one that would plant another tree 
wps not to set it within five feet of his neigh- 
bor's field ; but if a fig or an olive, not within 
nine ; for their roots spread farther, nor can 
they be planted near all sorts of trees without 
damage, for they draw away the nourishment. 
He that would dig a pit or a ditch was to dig 
it at the distance of its own depth from his 
neighbor's ground and he that would raise stocks 
of bees was not to place them within three 
hundred feet of those which another had already 
raised. 

He made a law, also, concerning hurts and 
injuries from beasts, in which he commands the 
master of any dog that bit a man to deliver him 
up with a log, four and a half feet long, about 
his neck ; a happy device for men's security. 

The story that his ashes were scattei^ed 
about the island Salamis is too strange to be 
easily believed or be thought any thing but a 
mere fable; and yet it is given, amongst other 
good authors, by Aristotle, the phUosopher. — 
Plutarch, Solon. 



38 GREECE 

Croesus — Enmity Towards Cyrus. 

Some tumult having risen among- the 
Scythians, a number of them retired clandes- 
t'nely into the territories of the Medes, where 
Cyaxares was at that time king. He received 
the fugitives under his protection, and after 
showing them many marks of his favour, he in- 
trusted some boys to their care, to learn their 
language, and the Scj^thian management of the 
bow. These Scythians employed much of their 
time in hunting, in which they were generally, 
though net alike successful. Cyaxares, it seems, 
\/as of an iiritable disposition, and meeting them 
one day when they returned without any game, 
l-e treated them with much insolence and asper- 
ity. They conceived themselves injured, and de- 
termined not to acquiesce in the affront. After 
som.e consultation among themselves, they de- 
termined to kill one of the children intrusted 
to their care, to dress him as they were ac- 
customed to do their game, and to serve him up 
to Cyaxares. They executed their purpose. 
Cyaxares and his guests partook of the human 
flesh, and the Scythians immediately sought the 
protection of the king of Sardis. 

Cyaxares demanded their persons : on re- 
fusrl of which a war commenced between the 
Lydians and the Medes. 

This was what excited the original enmity 
of Croesus, another king of Sardis, and prompted 
him to inquire of the oracle M^hether he should 
make war on Persia. — Herodotus, 1. 

Croesus and the Oracle at Delphi. 

He offered up three thousand chosen victims ; 
he collected a great number of couches decor- 
ated with gold and silver, many goblets of gold, 
and vests of purple; all these he consumed to- 
gether on one immense pile, thinking by these 
means to render the deity more auspicious to his 



LYDIA 39 

hopes. He constructed also a lion of pure gold, 
which weighed ten talents. It was originally 
placed at the Delphian temple, on gold tiles. 

Croesus, moreover, sent to Delphi two 
large cisterns, one of gold and one of silver: 
that of gold was placed on the right hand in 
the vestibule of the temple ; the silver one on the 
left. He presented also two basins, one of 
gold, another of silver. Many other smaller 
presents accompanied these; among which were 
some silver dishes, and the figure of a woman 
in gold, three cubits high, who, according to the 
Delphians, was the person who made the bread 
for the family of Croesus. This prince, besides 
all that we have enumerated, consecrated at 
Delphi his wife's necklace and girdles. 

He was now anxious to be informed whether 
his pov^^er would ever suffer diminution. The 
following was the answer of the Pythian : 

"When o'er the Medes a mule shall sit 

on high, 
O'er Debbly Hermus, then, soft Lydian, 

fly; 

Fly with all haste; for safety scorn thy 

fame, 
Nor scruple to deserve a coward's 

name." 

When the above verses were communicated 
to Croesus he was more delighted than ever; 
confident that a mule would never be sovereign 
of the Medes, and that consequently he could 
^ave nothing to fear for himself or his poster- 
ity. — Herodotus, 1 . 

Lydia. 

As far as we know the Lydians were the 
first of all nations to coin gold and silver. They 
seem to have invented the games of dice, knuckle 
bones, and ball. 



40 GREECE 

CoNvQUERED BY Cyhus. — The field of battle 
was a spacious and open plain in the vicinity of 
Sardis. Here Cyrus, King of Persia, found the 
Lydians prepared for the encounter; and as ha 
greatly feared the impression of their cavalry, 
he took the following means of obviating the 
danger: He collected all the camels which fol- 
lowed his camp, carrying the provisions and 
other baggage ; taking from these their burdens, 
he placed on them men accoutred as horse- 
men. Thus prepared, he ordered them to ad- 
vance against the Lydian horse; his infantry 
were to follow in the rear of the camels, and 
his own cavalry closed the order of the attack. 
Having thus arranged his forces, he commanded 
that no quarter should ba granted to the Lydians, 
but that whoever resisted should be put to 
death, Croesus himself excepted. He placed 
his camels in the van, knowing the hatred which 
a horse has to this animal, being neither able 
to support the smell nor the sight of it. He 
was satisfied that the principal dependence of 
Croesus was on his cavalry, which he hoped by 
this stratagem to render inefi'ective. The en- 
gagement had no sooner commenced than the 
horses, seeing and smelling the camels, threw 
their own ranks into disorder, to the total dis- 
comfiture of Croesus. Nevertheless, the Lydians 
did not imm.ediately surrender the day; they dis- 
covered the stratagem., and quitting their 
horses, engaged the Persians on foot; a great 
number of men fell on both sides ; but the 
Lydians were finally compelled to fly, and re- 
treating within their walls were there closely 
besieged. 

Sardis was thus taken : On the fourteenth 
day of the siege Cyrus sent horsemen round his 
camp, promising a reward to whoever should 
first scale the wall. The attempt was made, but 
without success. After which a certain soldier 



IONIA 41 

made a daring effort on a part of the citadel 
where no sentinel was stationed; it being so 
strong and so difficult of approach, as seemingly 
to defy all attack. He had the preceding day 
observed a Lydian descend to recover his helmet, 
which had fallen down the precipice. He re- 
volved the incident in his mind. He attempted 
to scale it; he was seconded by other Persians, 
and their example was followed by greater num- 
bers. In this manner was Sardis stormed, and 
afterward given up to plunder. — Herodotus I. 

Ionia, Settled by Greece, and Later Con- 
quered BY Lydia, is Now Brought Under 
THE Persian Empire. 

Cyrus revolved in his mind what would be 
the most effectual means of prevailing on the 
Persians to revolt from Media. 

The Persians, who had long spurned at the 
yoke imposed on them by the Medes, were glad 
of such a leader, and ardently obeyed the call 
of liberty. The Medes met and engaged the 
Persians : who were formerly the servants, were 
now the masters. — Hercdotiis, 1. 

The lonians, after the conquest of Lydia 
by the Persians, immediately despatched am- 
]"?ssado:s to Sardis, requesting Cyrus to receive 
them under his allegiance, on the terms which 
Croesus formerly had granted them. Cyrus gave 
them audience, and made the following reply: 
"A ceitam piper, observing some fishes sporting 
in the sea, began to play to them, in hopes 
that they would voluntarily throw themselves 
•^n shore; disappointed in his expectations, he 
threw his nets, enclosed a great number, and 
brought them to land ; seeing them leap about, 
'You may be quiet now,' said he, 'as you refused 
to come out to me when I played to you.' " 
Cyrus was induced to return this answer to the 



42 GREECE 

lonians, because they had formerly disregarded 
his soh'citations to withdraw their assistance 
from Croesus, refusing all submission to Cyrus, 
till they were compelled by necessity to make it. 

The lonians made no delay in despatching 
ambassadors to Sparta, who, when there, selected 
one for their common orator. Habited in pur- 
ple, as a means of getting a greater number of 
Spartans together, he stood forth in the midst of 
them, and exerted all his powers to prevail on 
them to communicate their assistance. The 
Lacedaemonians paid no attention to him, and 
publicly resolved not to assist the lonians. On 
the departure of the ambassadors, they never- 
theless despatched a vessel of fifty oars to watch 
the proceedings of Cyrus, as well as the lonians. 
They sent forward to Sardis, the principal man 
of the party, who was commissioned to inform 
Cyrus that the Lacedaemonians would resent 
whatever injury might be offered to any of the 
Grecian cities. 

Cyrus gave audience to the ambassador; 
after which he inquired of the Grecians around 
him who these Lacedamonians were, and what 
effective power they possessed, to justify this 
lofty language. When he was satisfied in these 
particulars, he told the Spartan, that men who 
had a large void space in their city where they 
assembled for the purpose of defrauding each 
other, could never be to him objects of terror. 
Cyrus made this reflection on the Greeks from 
the circumstance of their having large public 
squares for the convenience of trade : the Per- 
sians have nothing of the kind. 

On being conquered, the lonians continued 
in their several cities, and submitted to the 
wills of their new masters. The Milesians, who 
had before formed a League of amity with 
Cyrus, lived in undisturbed tranquillity. Thus 
was Ionia reduced a second time to servitude. 



IONIAN REVOLT 43 

Awed by the fate of their countrymen on the 
continent, the lonians of the islands, without 
any resistance submitted themselves to Cyrus. 
— Herodotus, 1. 

Ionian Revolt 

Cause. — Some of the more noble inhabitants 
of Naxos, being driven by the common people 
into banishment, sought a refuge at Miletus. 
Miletus was then governed by Aristagoras, the 
scn-in-law of Histiaeus, whom Darius detained 
at Susa. These exiles petitioned Aristagoras 
to assist them with supplies, to enable them to 
return to their country: he immediately con- 
ceived the idea that by accomplishing their re- 
turn, he might eventually become master of 
Naxos. 

Aristagoras went immediately to Sardis, 
where meeting with Artaphernes he painted to 
him in flattering terms the island of Naxos, 
which, though of no great extent, he represented 
as exceedingly fair and fertile, conveniently 
situated with respect to Ionia, very wealthy, and 
remarkably populois. "It will be worth your 
while," said he, "to make an expedition against 
it, under pretense of restoring its exiles : to 
facih'tpte th's, I already possess a considerable 
sum of money, besides what will be otherwise 
supplied." 

To this Artaphernes replied: "V/hat yo-i 
recommend v/ill unquestionably promote the in- 
terest of the king, and the particulars of your 
advice are reasonable and consistent." Arta- 
phernes sent immediately to acquaint Datis with 
the project of Aristagoras, which met his ap- 
probation: he accordingly fitted out two hundred 
triremes. Megabates had the command of the 
whole. He embarked at Miletus, with Aristag- 
oras, meaning, under favor of a north wind, 
to pass thence to Naxos. On going his rounds, 



44 GREECE 

he found a vessel deserted by its crew: he 
was so exasperated, that he commanded his 
guards to find who commanded it, and to bind 
him in such p. situation that his head should ap- 
pear outwardly from the aperture through which 
the oar passed, his body remaining in the vesssl. 
Aristagoras being informed of the treatment 
which his friend had received, went to Megabates 
to make his excuse, and obtain liberty; but as 
his exDostulations p^xved ineffectual, he wsnt 
himself and released him. Megabates was much 
incensed, and expressed his displeasure to Aris- 
tagoras ; from whom he received this reply : 
"Your authority," said Aristagoras, "does not 
extend so far as you suppose; you were sent 
to attend me, and to sail wherever I should think 
expedient: you are much too officious." Mega- 
bates took th's reproach so ill, that at the ap- 
proach of night he despatched some emissaries 
to Nfxos, to acquaint the inhabitants with the 
intended invasion. 

Of this attack the Naxians had not the re- 
motest expectation; but they took the advantage 
of the intell'genc: impaited to them, and pro- 
vired agahist a s'ege, by removing their valu- 
ables from the fields to the town, and by laying 
up a. store of water and provisions, and lastly, 
by repairing their walls : they were thus pre- 
pared against every emergency; while the Per- 
sians, passing over to Naxos, found the place in a 
perfect state of defense. Having wasted four 
months in the attack, and exhausted all the 
pecuniary resources which them.selves had 
brought, together w'th what Aristagoras sup- 
nh'ed, they still found that much was wanting 
to accomplish their purpose; they erected, there- 
fore, a fort for the Naxian exiles, and returned 
to the continent greatly disappointed. 

Aristagoras thus found himself unable to 
fulfil his engagements with Artaphernes ; and 



ALLIES 45 

he was also, to his great vexation, called on to 
defray the expense of the expedition; he saw, 
moreover, in the person of Megabates an ac- 
cuser, and he feared that their ill success should 
be imputed to him: these motives induced him to 
meditate a revolt. While he was in this per- 
plexity, a messenger arrived from Histiaeus, at 
Susa, who brought with him an express com- 
mand to revolt ; the particulars of which were 
impressed in legible characters on his skull. 
Histiaeus was desirous to communicate his in- 
tentions to Aristagoras ; but as the ways were 
strictly guarded, he could devise no other 
method; he therefore took one. of the most 
faithful of his slaves, and inscribed what we 
have mentioned on his skull, being first shaved; 
he detained the man till his hair was again 
grown, when he sent him to Miletus, desiring 
him to be as expeditious as possible; and simply 
requesting Aristagoras to examine his skull, he 
discovered the characters which commanded him 
to commence a revolt. To this measure Histiaeus 
was induced by the vexation he experienced from 
his captivity at Susa. He flattered himself, that 
as soon as Aristagoras was in act'on, he shoull 
be able to escape to the seacoast; but while 
everything remained quiet at Miletus he had no 
prospect of effecting "his return. — -Herodotus, V. 
Allies. — The Lacedaemonians affirm, that 
desiring to have a conference with their sover- 
eign, Aiistagoras, appeared before him \vJth a 
tablet of brass in his hand, on which was in- 
scribed every known part of the habitable 
woild, the Scgs, and the rivers. He thus ad- 
dressed the Spartan monarch: "When you knov\/ 
my business, Cloemenes, you will cease to won- 
der at my zeal in desiring to see you. The 
lonians, who ought to be free, are in a state 
of servitude; which is not only disgraceful, but 
also a source of the extremest sorrow to us, as it 



46 GREECE 

must also be to you, who are pre-eminent in 
Greece. I entreat you, therefore, by the gods 
of Greece, to restore the lonians to liberty, who 
are connected with you by the ties of blood. 
The accomplishment of this will not be difficult: 
the barbarians (Persians) are by no means re- 
markable for their valor ; while you, by your 
military virtue, have attained the summit of re- 
nown. They rush to the combat armed only 
with a bow and a short spear: their robes are 
long; they suffer their hair to grow; and they 
will afford an easy conquest : add to this, that 
they who inhabit the continent are affluent be- 
yond the rest of their neighbours. They have 
abundance of gold, of silver, and of brass; they 
enjoy a profusion of every article of dress, have 
plenty of cattle, and a prodigious number of 
slaves: all these, if you think proper, may be 
yours. The nations by which they are sur- 
rounded I shall explain : next to these lonians 
are the Lydians, who possess a fertile territory, 
and a profusion of silver." Saying this, he 
Do^'nted on the tablet in his hand to the particu- 
lar district of which he spake. 

"In Susa, where the Persian monarch o(s 
casionally resides, his treasures are deposited. 
Make yourselves masters of this city, and you 
may vie in affluence with Jupiter himself. Lay 
aside, therefore, the contest in which you are 
engaged with the Messen^ans, who equal you in 
strength, about a tract of land, not very exten- 
sive, nor remarkably fertile. Neither are the 
Aicadians nor the Argives proper objects of your 
amb^'tion, who are destitute of those precious 
metals which induce men to brave dangers and 
death: but can anything be more desirable 
than the oppoitunity now afforded you of mak- 
ing the ent^'re conquest of Asia?" Cleomenes 
inquired of Aristagoras how many days' journey 
it was from the Ionian Sea to the dominions of 



ACTION 47 

the Persian king. Aristagoras replied that it 
was a journey of about three months. Cleom- 
enes interrupted him, "Stranger of Miletus," 
said he, "depart from Sparta before sunset : 
what you say cannot be agreeable to the 
Lacedaemonians, desiring to lead us a march 
of three months from the sea." Having said 
this, Cloemenes withdrew. 

Aristagoras, the Milesian, being driven 
by Cleomenes from Sparta, arrived at Athens, 
which city was then powerful beyond every one 
of its neighbouis and hostile to the Persians. 
When Aristagoras appeared in the public as- 
sembly he enumerated, as he had done at Sparta, 
the riches which Asia possessed, and recom- 
mended a Persian war, in which they would be 
easily successful against a people using neither 
spear nor shield. In addition to this, he re- 
marked that Miletus was an Athenian colony, 
and that consequently it became the Athenians 
to Gxei't the great pov/er they possessed in 
favour of the Milesians. He proceeded to make 
use cf the most earnest" entreaties, and lavish 
prom'ses, till they finally acceded to his views. 
He thought, and as it appeared with justice, that 
it was far easier to delude a great mult"tude 
than a s'ngle individual: he was unable to pre- 
vail on Cleomenes; but he won to his purpose no 
less than thiity thousand Athenians. — Herodotus, 
V. 

Action. — Aristagoras was joined by the 
Athenians in twenty vessels, who were also ac- 
forapan'€d by five triremes of Eretrians. These 
latter did not engage in the contest from any 
regard for the Athenians, but to discharge a debt 
of friendship to the Milesians. When these and 
the rest of his confederates were assembled, 
Aristagoras commenced an expedition against 
Sardis; he himself continued at Miletus, while 
his brother commanded the Milesians. 



48 GREECE 

They arrived at Sardis, where meeting no 
resistance, they made themselves masters of the 
whole city, except the citadel. This was de- 
fended by Artapherenes, with a large body of 
troops. The houses of Sardis were in general 
construxted of reeds ; such a few as were of brick 
had reed coverings. One of these being set on 
fire by a soldier, the flames spread from house 
to house, till the whole city was consumed. In 
the midst of the conflagration the Lydians, and 
such Persians as were in the city, seeing them- 
selves surrounded by the flames, and without the 
possibility of escape, rushed in crowds to the 
forum. The Persians and Lydians thus reduced 
to the last extremity, were compelled to act on 
the defensive. The lonians seeing some of the 
enemy prepared to defend themselves, others ad- 
vancing to attack them, were seized with a 
panic, and retired to Mount Tmolus, whence, 
un^'er favor of the night, they retreated to their 
ships. 

In the burning of Sardis, the temple of 
Cybele, the protecting goddess of the country, 
was totally destroyed, which was afterward made 
a pretense by the Persians for burning the 
temples of the Greeks. 

At this period Darius was informed of the 
burning of Sardis by the Athenians and lonians, 
and that Aristagoras of Miletus was the principal 
instigator of the confederacy against him. On 
first receiving the intelligence, he is said to have 
treated the revolt of the lonians with extreme 
contempt, as if certain that it was impossible 
for them to escape his indignation ; but he c c- 
sired to know who the Athenians were. On 
being told, he called for his bow; and shooting 
an arrow into the air, he exclaimed, "Suffer 
me, oh, Jupiter, to be revenged on these Atheni- 
ans!" He afterward directed one of his at- 
tendants to repeat to him three times every 



PERSIAN INVASIONS 49 

day, when he sat down to table, "Sir, remember 
the Athenians." 

The Persians, having routed the lonians, 
laid close siege to Miletus, both by sea and land. 
They not only undermined the walls, but applied 
every species of military machines against it. 
In the sixth year after the revolt of Aristagoras 
they took and plundered the place. The greater 
part of the Milesians were slain by the Persians, 
who wear their hair long: their wives and chil- 
dien were carried into slavery: the temple, and 
the shrine near the oracle were consumed by 
flames. 

The Milesians who survived the slaughter 
were carried to Susa. Darius treated them with 
great humanity. The destruction of Miletus 
affected the Athenians with the liveliest un- 
easiness, which was apparent from various cir- 
cumwStances, and from the following in particu- 
lar: On seeing the capture of Miletus rep- 
resented in a dramatic piece by Phrynichus, "the 
whole audience burst into tears. The poet, for 
thus reminding them of a domestic calamity, 
was fined a thousand drachmae, and the piece 
was forbidden to be repeated. — Herodotus, V, VI. 

Persian Invasions. 

Under Mardcnius 

Mardonius, commanding for Darius, pro- 
ceeded toward the Hellespont; v/here, collecting 
a numerous fleet and a powerful army, he 
passed them over the Hellespont in ships, and 
piGCteded through Europe towards Eretria and 
Athens. 

These two cities were the avowed object 
of his expedition, but he really intended to re- 
duce as many of the Greek cities as he possibly 
could. By sea he subdued the Thasians, who 
attempted no resistance; by land his army re- 



50 GREECE 

duced all those Macedonians who were most re- 
mote: the Macedonians on this side had been 
reduced before. Leaving Thasos, he endeav- 
oured to double Mount Athos; but at this junc- 
ture a tempestuous wind arose from the North, 
which, pressing hard on the fleet, drove a great 
number of ships against Mount Athos. He is 
said on this occasion to have lost three hundred 
vessels, and more than twenty thousand men : 
of these, numbers were destroyed by the sea 
monsters, which abound off the coast near 
i^thos; others were dashed on the rocks; some 
lost their lives from their inability to swim, 
and many perished by the cold. 

While Mardonius with his land forces was 
rncaro/oed 'n Macedonia, he was attacked in the 
night by the inhabitants of Thrace, who killed 
many of his men, and wounded Mardonius, him- 
self. They did not, however, finally elude the 
powei' of the Persians ; for Mardonius would 
not leave that region till he had effectually re- 
duced them under h\s power. After this event 
he led back his army, which had suffered much 
from, the Thracians, but still more by the 
tempest off Athos ; his return therefore to Asia 
was far from being glorious. — Herodotus, VI. 

The domestic of the Persian monarch con- 
tinued regularly to bid him "Remember the 
Athenians." He accordingly removed from his 
command Mardonius, who had been unsuccess- 
ful in his naval undertakings ; he appointed two 
other officers to commence an expedition against 
Eretria and Athens ; these were Datis, a native 
of Media, and Artaphernes, who were com- 
manded to subdue both the above olaces, and 
to bring the inhabitants captive before him. 

They did not, keeping along the coast, ad- 
vance in a right line to Thrace and the Helles- 
pont; but loosing from Samos, they passed 
through the midst of the islands and the Sea; 



MARATHON 51 

fearing, as I should suppose, to double the 
promontory of Athos, by which they had, in the 
former year, severely suffered. They were 
farther induced to this course by the Island of 
Naxos, which before they had omitted to take. 
At this juncture the inhabitants of Delos de- 
serted their island. 

The Persians, arriving at Eretria, en- 
deavoured to storm the place; and a contest 
of six days was attended with very consider- 
able loss on both sides. On the seventh the city 
was betrayed to the enemy by two of the more 
eminent citizens. As soon as the Persians got 
possession of the place they pillaged and burnt 
the temples, to avenge the burning of their 
temples at Sardis. The people according to the 
orders of Darius, were made slaves. — Herodotus, 
VI. 

Marathon. — This glorious plain of Mara- 
thon, where the Athenians covered themselves 
with immortal fame, is only twenty-two miles 
from Athens by one road, and twenty-six by 
another. It extends along the seashore, is 
abort s^'x miles in length, and from three to 
one and a half in breadth. Rocky hills and 
: ugged mountains surround it on three sides. 
Through the center of the plain meanders a 
small brook, and two marshes bound its ex- 
tremity. It is a romantic and beautiful spot ; 
the bright and ever-glancing sea kisses the beach 
with its lips of foam and the amphitheatre of 
mountains, covered with sweet-smelling thyme 
and laurel and lentisc, hedges it in carefully 
against unseemly intrusion. — Greece, Harrison, 
301. 

The Athenian leaders were greatly divided 
in opinion ; some thought that a battle was by 
no means to be hazarded, as they were so in- 
ferior to the Medes in point of number; others, 
ranong whom was Miltiades, were anxious to en- 



52 GREECE 

gage the enemy. Of these contradictory senti- 
ments the less poh'tic appeared more likely to 
prevail, when Miltiades addressed himself to thf^ 
polemarch, whose name was Callimachus. This 
magistrate, elected into his office by vote, lias 
tae privilege of a casting voice. Miltiades ad- 
dressed him thus : "On you, O Callimachus ! it 
alone depends, whether Athens shall be en- 
slsved, or whether in the preservation of its lib- 
eities, it shall perpetuate your name. Our coun- 
try is now reduced to a more delicate and dan- 
gerous predicament than it has ever before ex- 
peyienced: if conquered, we know our fate, and 
must prepare for the tyranny of Hippias ; if we 
overcome, cur city may be made the firs' in 
Greece. All these things are submitted to your 
attention, and are suspended on your will. If 
you accede to my opinion, our country will be 
free, our city the first in Greece; if you shall 
favour the opinions of those who are averse 
to rn engagement, you must expect the contrary 
of all the good I have enumerated." 

These arguments of Miltiades produced the 
desired effect on Callimachus, from whose inter- 
position it was determined to fight. Those lead- 
ers who from the first had been solicitious to 
emgDge the enemy, resigned to Miltiades the 
days of their respective command. This he ac- 
cepted; but did not think proper to commence 
the attack till the day of his own particular 
command arrived in its course. 

The Athenians produced a front equal in ex- 
tent to that of the Modes. The ranks in the 
center were not very deep, which of course con- 
stituted their weakest part; but the two wings 
were more numerous and strong. 

The preparations for the attack being thus 
made, and the appearance of the victims favour- 
able, the Athenians ran toward the barbarians. 
There was between the two armies an interval 



MARATHON 53 

of about eight furlongs. The Persians, seeing 
them approach by running, prepared to receive 
them; and as they observed the Athenians to 
be few in number, destitute both of cavalry 
and archers, they considered them as mad, and 
rushing on certain destruction; but as soon as 
the Greeks mingled with the enemy they be- 
haved with the greatest gallantry. They were 
the first Greeks that I know of who ran to 
rttack pn pncmy. They were the first, also, 
who beheld without dismay the dress and 
.Tmorr of the Medes; for hitherto in Greece 
the very name of a Mede excited terror. 

After a long and obstinate contest, the 
barbarians in the center, obliged the Greeks 
to give way, and pursued the flying foe into the 
middle of the country. At the same time the 
^thfnians and Plataeans in the two wings, drove 
the barbarians before them; then making an in- 
clination towards each other by contracting 
themselves they formed against that part of the 
enemy which had penetrated and defeated the 
Gi'ec^'an cente?', and obtained a complete victory, 
k^llins- a Drodigious number, and Dursuing the 
rest to the sea, where they set fire to their 
vessels. 

Callimachus the polemarch, after the most 
signpl acts of valour, lost his life in this battle. 

In addition to their victory, the Athenians 
obtained possession of several of the enemy's 
vessels. The barbarians retired with their 
fleet, and taking on board the Eretrian plunder, 
which they had left in the island, they passed 
the promontory of Sunium, thinking to circum- 
vent the Athenians, and arrive at the city before 
them. 

While they were doubling the Cape of Su- 
nium, the Athenians lost no time in hastening 
to the defense of their city, and effectually 
prevented the designs of the enemy. The bar- 



54 GREECE 

barians, anchoring off Phalerum, the Athenian 
harbour, remained there some time, and then 
retired to Asia. — Herodotus, VI. 
Under Xerxes 

When the news of the battle of Marathon 
was communicated to Darius, he, who was be- 
fore incensed against tlie Athenians, on account 
of their invasion of Sardis, became still more 
exasperated, and more inclined to invade Greece. 
H6 instantly, therefore, sent emissaries to the 
different cities under his power, to provide a 
still greater number of transports, horses, corn, 
and provisions ; but in the year which succeeded 
the Egyptian revolt he died, without being able 
to gratify his resentment against the Egyptians 
and Athenians who had opposed his power. 

After the subjection of Egypt, Xerxes pre- 
pared to lead an army against Athens. — Herod- 
otus, VH. 

Bridge Over the Hellespont. — While he 
was preparing to go to Abydos, numbers were 
employed in throwing a bridge over the Helles- 
pont, from Asia to Europe. The Phoenicians 
used a cordage mfde of linen, the Egyptians 
the ba'-k of the biblos ; from Abydos to the op- 
posite continent is a space of seven stadia. The 
bridge was no sooner completed than a great 
tempest arose, which tore in pieces and de- 
stroyed the whole of their labor. When Xerxes 
heard of what had happened, he was so enraged 
that he ordered three hundred lashes to be in- 
'fficted on the Hellespont, and a pair of fetters to 
be thrown into the sea. I have been informed 
that he even sent some executioners to brand the 
Hellespont with marks of ignominy; but it is 
certain that he ordered those who inflicted the 
lashes to use these barbarous and mad expres- 
sions : "Thou ungracious water, thy master 
condemns thee to this punishment, for having 
injured him without provocation. Xerxes, the 



MARATHON 55 

king, will pass over thee, whether thou consent- 

cst or not." 

A bridge was then constructed by a dif- 
ferent set of architects, who performed it in 
the lollcwing manner: they connected together 
ships of different kinds, some long vessels of 
fifty oars, others three-banked galleys. The 
foimer cf these were placed transversely; but 
the latter, to diminish the strain on the cables, 
in the direction of the current. When these 
vessels were firmly connected to each other, 
they were secured on each side by anchors of 
great length. 

Having performed this, they extended 
cables frcm the shore, stretching them on large 
capstans of wood. When the pass was thus 
secured, they sawed out rafters of wood, making 
their length equal to the space required, and 
^hT bound them fast together. They next 
brought unwrought wood, which they placed 
very regularly on the rafters; over all they 
threw earth, which they raised to a proper 
height, and finished all by a fence on each side, 
that the horses and other beasts of burden might 
not be terrified by looking dovv^n on the sea. — 
Herodotus, VII. 

Thermopylae. — The Hellenes at Thermopy- 
lae, v/hen the Persians had come near the the 
pass, were in dread, and deliberated about mak- 
ing a retreat from their position. To the rest of 
the Peloponnesians then it seemed best that they 
should go to the Peloponnese and hold the isth- 
mus in guard; but Leonidas, when the Phicians 
rnd Locrians were indignant at this oninion gavs 
his vcte for rcmain^'ng there, and for sending 
at the same time messengers to the several 
states, bidding them come up to help them smco 
they were few to repel the army of the Medes. 

Xerxes let four days go by, expecting al- 
ways that they would take to flight; but on the 



56 GREECE 

fifth day, when they did not depart but re- 
mained, being obstinate, as he thought, in 
impudence and folly, he was enraged and' sent 
against them the Medes, charging them to take 
the men alive and bring them into his presence. 
Then when the Medes moved forward and at- 
tacked the Hellenes, there fell many of them, 
and others kept coming up continually, and they 
were net driven back, though suffering great 
loss ; and they made it evident to every man, and 
to the king himself not least of all, that human 
beings are many but men are few. This com- 
bat went on throughout the day. 

And when the Medes were being roughly 
handled, then these retired from the battle, and 
the Persians, those namely whom the king 
called "Immortals," took their place and came to 
the attack, supposing that they, at least, would 
easily overcome the enemy. When, however, 
these also engaged in combat with the Hellenes, 
they gained no more success than the Median 
troops but the same as they, seeing that they 
were fighting in a place with a narrow passage, 
using shorter spears than the Hellenes, and not 
being able to take advantage of their supsrior 
numbers. The Lacedaemonians meanwhile were 
fighting in a memorable fashion, and bssides 
other things of which they made display, being 
men perfectly skilled in fighting, opposed to men 
who were unskilled, they would turn their backs 
to the enemy and make a pretense of taking 
to flight; and the barbarians, seeing them thus 
taking fl\ght, would follow after them with 
shouting and clashing of arms ; then the Lace- 
daemonians, when they were being caught up, 
turned back and faced the barbarians ; and thus 
turning round they would slay innumerab^^ mul- 
titudes of the Persians ; and there fell also at 
these times a few of the Spartans themselves. 
So, as the Persians were not able to obtain any 



THERMOPYLAE 57 

success by making a trial of the entrance and 
attacking it by divisions and every way, they 
retired. And during these onsets it is said 
that the king, looking on, three times leaped 
up from his seat, struck with fear for his army. 
— Herodotus, VII. 

The longer road over Mt. Oeta was guarded 
by Greeks but a heavy mist prevented a detach- 
ment of the enemy under the traitor Ephialtes 
from being seen until they were almost upon 
the Greeks. Not being able to hold the pass 
they returned to Leonidas and told of the ap- 
proach of the Persians upon their rear. Most 
of the Greeks embarked upon the ships, which 
were near. 

After all but the thousand Greeks, who re- 
mained with Leonidas at Thermoplyae, had de- 
parted, he commanded them that they would 
with all speed to their dinners with that cheer- 
fulness as those that must be with the Gods 
at supper; and he himself presently commanded 
meat to be brought to him, and fell to eating; 
for by this means he said they would be more 
able to endure and longer to abide the dangers 
and toils of sucn an engagement. — Dindorus. 

Xerxes, meanwhile, having made libations at 
sunrise, stayed for some time, until about the 
hour when the market fills, and then made an 
advarce upon them. Very many of the barbari- 
ans fell; for behind them the leaders of the 
dH-is'cns w'th scourges in their hands were 
striking each man, ever urging them on to the 
front. Many of them then were driven into the 
sea and perished, and many more stHl were 
trodden down while yet alive by one another, 
and there was no reckoning of the number that 
perished. The Greeks, knowing that death was 
about to come upon them by reason of thoso 
who were going round the mountain, displayed 



58 GREECE 

upon the barbarians all the strength which they 
had, to its greatest extent, disregarding danger 
and acting as if possessed by a spirit of reck- 
lessness. 

Now by this time the spears of the greater 
number of them were broken, so it chanced, in 
this combat, and they were slaying the Persians 
with their swords ; and in this fighting fell 
Leonidas, having proved himself a very good 
man, and ethers, also, of the Spartans with him, 
men of note, of whose names I was informed 
as of men who had proved themselves worthy, 
and indeed I was told also the names of all the 
three hundred Spartans. Meanwhile over the 
body of Leonidas there arose a great struggle 
between the Persians and the Lacedaemonians, 
until the Hellenes by valor dragged this away 
from the enemy and turned their opponents to 
flight four times. This conflict continued until 
those who had gone with Ephialtes came up ; 
and when the Hellenes learned that these had 
come, from that moment the nature of the com- 
bat was changed; for they retired to the na:"- 
row part of the way, and having passed by 
the wall they went and placed themselves upon 
the hillock, all in a body together, except only 
the Thebans. Now, this hillock is in the en- 
trance, where now the stone lion is placed for 
Leonidas. On this spot, while defending them- 
selves with daggers, that is those who still had 
them left, and also with hands and with teeth, 
they were overwhelmed by the missiles of the 
barbarians, some of these having followed di- 
rectly after them and destroyed the wall, v/h'le 
others had come round and stood about them 
on all sides. — Hercdotus, VII. 

Xerxes — At Athens. 

The forces under Xerxes in their passage 
through Boeotia had set fire to the city of the 



XERXES AT ATHENS 59 

Thespians, who had retired to the Peloponnesus. 
They had also burned the city of the Plataeans, 
and proceeding onward, were now about to 
ravage Athens. 

They found Athens deserted; an inconsider- 
able number remained in the temple, with the 
treasures of the temple, who with a Palisade of 
wood attempted to prevent the approach of the 
enemy to the citadel. These had not gone to 
Salamis, being deterred partly by their indi- 
gence, and partly from their confidence in the 
declaration of the oracle, that a wall of wood 
would prove invincible. This they referred not 
to the ships, but to the defense of wood, which 
on this occasion they formed. 

The Persians encamped on the hill oppose tf^ 
the citadel, which the Athenians called the Hill 
of Mars, and thus commenced their attack ; 
they shot against the intrenchment of wood 
arrows wrapped in tow, and set on fire. The 
Athenians, although reduced to the last extrem- 
ity, and involved in the fire which had caught 
their barricade, obstinately refused to listen 
to conditions. They resisted to the last; and 
v^hen the Persians were'', just about to enter, 
they rolled down on theM stones of an immense 
size. Xerxes, not able to force the place, was 
for a long time exceedingly perplexed. 

In the midst of their embarrassment- the 
barbarians discovered a resource. In the front 
of the citadel, but behind the gate and the 
regular ascent, there was a cragged and un- 
guarded pass, by which it was not thought pos- 
sible that any man could force his way. Here, 
however, some of the enemy mounted. As soon 
as the Athenians discovered them, part threw 
themselves over the wall and were killed, others 
retired into the building. The Persians who 
entered forced their way to the gates, threv/ 
them open, and put the suppliants, who had 



60 GREECE 

there taken refuge, to death. — Herodotus, VIII. 

And not only this, but, burning with a 
remembrance of fire-scathed Sardis, they set all 
the sanctuaries and holy places on fire, and 
ruined them as far as they could. — Greece, Har- 
rison, 350. 

Salamis. — The Grecian fleet, at the request 
of the Athenians, came to an anchor at Salamis. 
The motive of the Athenians in soliciting this, 
was to have the opportunity of removing their 
wives and families from Attica. 

While the rest of the allies continued with 
the fleet, the Athenians returned to their coun- 
try, where they proclaimed by a herald that 
every Athenian was to preserve his family and 
effects by the best means in his power. The 
greater number took refuge at Troezene, others 
fled to Aegina, and some to Salamis, each being 
anxious to save what was dear to him, and to 
comply with the injunctions of the oracle. — 
Herodotus, VIII. 

When the whole city of Athens were going 
on board, it afl^orded a spectacle worthy of pity 
alike and admiration, to see them thus send 
away their fathers and children before them, 
and, unmoved with their cries and tears, pass 
over into the island. But that which stirred 
compassion most of all was, that many old men, 
by reason of their great age, were left behind ; 
and even the tame domestic animals could not 
be seen without pity, running about the town 
and howling, as desirous to be carried along 
with their masters that had kept them; among 
which it is reported that Xanthippus, the father 
of Pericles, had a dog that would not endure 
to stay behind, but leaped into the sea, and 
swam along by the galley's side till he came 
to the island of Salamis, where he fainted away 
and died, and that spot in the island, which is 
still called the Dog's Grave, is said to be his. — 



PLATAEA 61 

Plutarch, Themistocles. 

About midnight the western division of 
the Persian fleet advanced towards Salamis, 
meaning to surround it. They drew out their 
fleet to cut off from the Greeks the possibility 
of retreat. 

A very great part of the barbarian fleet 
was torn in pieces at Salamis, principally by 
the Athenians and the people of Aegina. The 
event could not well be otherwise. The Greeks 
fought in order, and preserved their ranks ; the 
barbarians, without either regularity or judg- 
ment. They made the greater exertions from 
their terror of the king, in whose sight they 
imagined they fought. 

During the confusion many Phoenicians 
who had lost their ships, went to the king, and 
informed h™ that their disgrace was occasioned 
by the perfidy of the lonians. The consequence 
of this was, that the Ionian leaders were not 
punished with death, but the Phoenicians were. 
— Herodotus VIII. 

Xerxes immediately hastened to the Helles- 
pont. But Mardonius was left with the most 
serviceable part of the army, about three hun- 
dred thorsand men, and was a formidable 
enemy, confident in his infantry, and writing 
messages of defiance to the Greeks. 

Plataea. — Battle Under Mardonius. — 
Pausanias, kmg of Sparta and commander 
of the Greeks, troubled while the priest went on 
olTering one sacrifice after another, turned him- 
self towards the temple with tears in h^'s eyes, 
and lifting up his hands to heaven besought 
Juno and the other gods of the Plataeans, if it 
were not in the fates for the Greeks to obtain 
the victory, that they might not perish, with- 
out performing some remarkable thing, and by 
their actions demonstrating to their enemies, 



62 GREECE 

that they waged war with men of courage, and 
soldiers. While Pausanias was thus in the act 
of supplication, the sacrifices appeared propi- 
tious, and the soothsayers foretold victory. The 
word being given, the Lacedaemonian battalion 
seemed, on the sudden, like some one fierce 
animal, setting up his bristles, and betaking 
himself to the combat ; and the barbarians per- 
ceived that they encountered with men who 
would fight it to the death. Therefore, holding 
their wicker-shields before them, they shot their 
arrows amongst the Lacedaemonians. But the 
Greeks, keeping together in the order of a 
phalanx, and falling upon the enemy, forced 
their shields out of their hands, and, striking 
with their pikes at the breasts and faces of the 
Persians, overthrew many of them; who, how- 
ever, fell not either unrevenged or without cour- 
age. For taking hold of the spears with their 
bare hands, they broke many of them, and be- 
took themselves not without effect to the swords ; 
and making use of their falchions and scimi- 
tars, and wresting the Lacedaemonians' shields 
from them, and grappling with them, it was a 
long time that they made resistance. — Plutarch, 
Aristides. 

A.RISTIDEP — Commander of the Combined 
Greek Fleet. 
Being sent in joint commission with Cimon 
to drive the Persians out of the Aegean Sea, 
Aristides took notice that Pausanias and other 
Spartan captains made themselves offensive by 
imperiousness and harshness to the confeder- 
ates; but Aristides, by being gentle and con- 
siderate with them, and by the courtesy and dis- 
interested temper which Cimon manifested in the 
expeditions, stole away the chief command from 
the Lacedaemonians, neither by weapons, ships, 
nor horses, but by equity and wise policy. For 
the Athenians being endeared to the Greeks, by 



DELIAN LEAGUE 63 

the justice of Aristides and by Cimon's modera- 
tion, the tyranny and selfishness of Pausanias 
rendered them yet more desirable. He on all 
occasions treated the commanders of the con- 
federates haughtily and roughly; and the com- 
mon soldiers he punished with stripes, or stand- 
ing all day with an iron anchor on their shoul- 
ders; neither was it permitted for any to provide 
straw for themselves to lie on, or forage for 
their horses, or to come near the springs to 
water, before the Spartans were furnished, but 
servants v/ith wh^"ps drove away such as ap- 
proached. And when Aristides once was about 
to complain and expostulate with Pausanias, 
he told him with an angry look, that he was 
not at leisure, and gave no attention to him. 
The consequence was that the sea captains and 
the generals of the Greeks, came to Aristides 
and requested h:m to be their general, and to 
receive the confederates into h^'s command, who 
had long desired to relinquish the Spartains and 
come over to the Athenians. In fine, they all 
went off and joined the Athenians. And here 
the magnanimity of the Lacedaemonians was 
wonderful. For when they perceived that their 
generals were becoming corrupted by the great- 
ness of their authority, they voluntarily laid 
down the chief command, and left off sending 
any more of them to the wars, choosing rather 
to have citizens of moderation and consistent 
in the observance of their customs, than to pos- 
sess the dominion of all Greece. — Plutarch, Aris- 
tides. 

Delian League — Athenian Supremacy. 

The Greeks paid a certain contribution to- 
wards the maintenance of the war; and being 
desirious to be rated city by city in their due 
piopoition, they desired Aristides of the Atheni- 
ans, to assess every one according to their 



64 GREECE 

ability and what they were worth. The assess- 
ment which Aristides made, was four hundred, 
sixty talents. But to this Pericles added very 
near one third part more. But after Pericles' 
death, the demagogues, increasing the levy, by 
little and little, raised it to the sum of thirteen 
hundred talents. — Plutarch, Aristides. 

CiMON Wins Back Ionia From Persia. — 
Nor did any man ever do more than Cimon 
did to humble the pride of the Persian king. 
He was not content with getting rid of him out 
of Greece ; but following close at his heels be- 
fore the barbarians could take breath and re- 
cover themselves, he was already at work, and 
what with his devastations, and his forcible re- 
duction of some places, and the revolts and 
voluntary accession of others, in the end from 
Ionia to Pamhylia all Asia was clear of Persian 
soldiers. — Plutarch, Cimon. 

Revolt of Naxos.— Then the Naxians re- 
volted, and the Athenians made war against 
them and reduced them by blockade. This was 
the first of the allied cities which was enslaved 
contrary to Hellenic right ; the turn of the others 
came later. The causes which led to the de- 
fections of the allies were of different kinds, the 
principal being their neglect to pay the tribute 
or to furnish ships, and, in some cases, failure 
of military service. — Thucydides. 



REVOLT OF HELOTS - Spartan Slaves 



A most sad and unexpected calamity hap- 
pened to the Spartans ; for by an earthquake 
there, not only the houses were wholly over- 
turned, but above twenty thousand souls buried 
alive in the rubbish. The city shaked for a 
long time together, and many by the violent 
fall of the walls of the houses miserably per- 
ished; and the household goods and riches of 
all sorts were by this dreadful shake swallowed 
up. 

The Helots and Messenians, when they ob- 
served that the greatest part of the city and 
inhabitants were destroyed, entered into a 
league, and with joint force made war upon 
the Spartans. But Archidamus, King of Sparta, 
while the city was in the height of this terrible 
convulsion, suddenly headed his army and has- 
tened into the field. The Spartans sent for aid 
to the Athenians, who furnished them with sup- 
plies; but afterwards they dismissed the Athen- 
ians ; in truth, suspecting that they favored 
the Messenians, but pretending that the forces 
of the other confederates were sufficient for 
the present service. The Athenians looking 
upon it as a slight and an affront, departed 
grumbling, full of indignation, with their hearts 
boiling with revenge against the Lacedaemoni- 
ans; which afterwards broke out into open 
hostility and filled the cities with cruelty and 
bloodshed, and all Greece with misery and 
calamity. — Diodorus', XL 



66 GREECE 

Peloponnesian War. 

Cause. — The growth of the Athenian 
power I conceive to have been the truest occa- 
sion of the war, though never openly avowed; 
the jealousy struck by it into the Lacedaemoni- 
ans made the contest necessary. — Thucydides, I. 

When the war broke forth between the 
Corinthians, an ally of Sparta, and them of 
Corcyra, the people of Athens resolved to side 
with the Corcyreans, because Corcyra was so 
situated that it was a very ready and convenient 
pass from thence into Sicily. — Diodorits. 

The Spartans tried to make themselves 
popular by giving out that they were fighting 
to break down the "tyranny" of Athens and re- 
store "freedom" to all the Greek states. — Greece, 
Harrison, Jfl 7. 

Resources of Sparta. — The Spartan 
League was pinched for money, and besides, 
the Spartans were slow, dull and cautious, while 
the Athenians were as nimble as grasshoppers, 
full of resource and enthusiasm, and endowed 
with a surpassing nervous organization that en- 
abled them to endure almost incredible things 
— defeat, shame, sorrow and misfortune. — 
Greece, Harrison, 416. 

Resources of Athens. — As to the gen- 
eral situation, Pericles repeated his previous 
advice ; they must prepare for war and bring 
their property from the country into the city; 
they must defend their walls but not go out to 
battle. The Long Walls running down to the 
Piraeus were rather more than four and a half 
m'les in length ; the outer only was guarded. 
They s'lould also equip for service the fleet in 
which lay their strength. Their allies should be 
kept well in hand, for the Athenians' power 
depended on the revenues which they derived 
from them ; military successes were generally 



PLAGUE AT ATHENS 67 

gained by a wise policy and command of money. 
The state of their finances was encouraging; 
they had on an average six hundred talents of 
tribute coming in annually from their allies, to 
say nothing of their other revenue ; and there 
were still remaining in the Acropolis six thou- 
sand talents of coined silver. Moreover, there 
was uncoined gold and silver in the form of 
private and public offerings, sacred vessels used 
in processions and games, the Persian spoil and 
other things of the like nature, worth at least 
five hurdred talents more. There were also 
at their disposal, besides what they had in the 
Acropolis, considerable treasures in various 
temples. If they were reduced to the last ex- 
trem'ty, they could even take off the plates of 
gold with which the image of the goddess was 
overlaid ; these, as he pointed out, weighed forty 
talents, and were of refined gold, which was all 
removable. They might use this treasure in 
self-defense, but they were bound to replace 
all that they had taken. By this estimate of 
their wealth, he strove to encourage them. — 
Thucydides, II. 

Invasion of Attica. — The Lacedaemonians, 
and their allies, with a great army, invaded 
the Athenian territories, under the conduct of 
king Archidamus, and laying waste the coun- 
try, marchei on and p'tched their camp, pre- 
suming that the Athenians v/ould never endure 
that but would come out and fight them for their 
country's and their honor's sake. But Pericles 
looked upon it as dangerous to engage in battle, 
to the r'sk of the c"ty itself, agamst sixty thou- 
sand men-?t-aims of Peloponnesians and Boeo- 
tians; and he endeavored to appease those who 
were desirous to fight, and were grieved and dis- 
contented to see how things went. — Plutarch, 
Per iciest. 

The Plague at Athens. — The disease ic- 



68 GREECE 

said to have begun south of Egypt in Ethiopia; 
thence it descended into Egypt and after spread- 
ing over the greater part of the Persian Em- 
pire, suddenly fell upon Athens. It first at- 
tacked the inhabitants of the Piraeus, and it 
was supposed that the Peloponnesians had 
poisoned the cisterns. It afterwards reached 
the upper city„ and then the mortality became 
far greater. The crowding of the people out 
of the country into the city aggravated the 
misery; and the newly arrived suffered most. 
For, having no houses of their own, but in- 
habiting in the height of summer stifling huts, 
the mortality among them was dreadful, and 
they perished in wild disorder. — Thucydides, 11. 

Pericles — Loses His Command. — The peo- 
ple, distempered and afflicted in their souls, as 
well as in their bodies, were utterly enraged 
like madmen against Pericles, and, 'like patients 
grown delirious, sought to lay violent hands 
on their physician, or, as it were, their father. 
They had been possessed, bj^ his enemies, with 
the belief that the occasion of the plague was 
the crowding of the country people together 
into the town, forced as they were now, in the 
heat of the summer weather, to dwell many of 
them together even as they could, in small 
tenements and stifling hovels, and to be tied to 
a lazy course of life within doors, whereas be- 
fore they lived in a pure, open, and free air. 
The cause and author of all this, said they, is 
who on account of the war has poured a multi- 
tude of people from the country in upon us 
within the walls, and uses all these many men 
that he has here upon no employ or service, but 
keeps them pent up like cattle, to be overrun 
with infection from one another, affording them 
neither shift of quarters nor any refreshment. 

Pericles tried and endeavored what he could 
to appease and reencourage them. But he could 



SIEGE OF PLATAEA 69 

not pacify or allay their anger, nor persuade 
or prevail Vv^ith them any way, till they freely 
passed their votes upon him, resumed their 
power, took away his command from him, and 
fined him in a sum of money; which, by their ac- 
count that say least was fifteen talents, while 
they who reckon most, name fifty. The name 
prefixed to the accusation was Cleon. 

The city having made trial of other generals 
for the conduct of war, and orators for busi- 
ness of state, when they found there was no 
one who was of weight enough for such a 
charge, or of authority sufficient to be trusted 
with so great a command, regretted the loss 
of him, and invited him again to address and 
advise them, and to reassume the oflSce of gen- 
eral. He, however, lay at home in dejection and 
mourning; but was persuaded by Alcibiades and 
others of his friends to come abroad and show 
himself to the people ; who having, upon his ap- 
pearance, made their acknowledgments, and 
apologized for their untowardly treatment of 
him, he undertook the public affairs once more. 
— Plutarch, Pericles. 

Siege of Plataea. — Archidamus, king 
of Sparta, besieged Plataea, since it was allied 
with Athens for protection against Thebes. 
Sparta favored Thebes and resented Plataea's 
resisting the attempt of Thebes to control all 
the towns of Boeotia through her league. 

In the first place, the Spartan soldiers 
felled the fruit trees and surrounded the city 
with a stockade, that henceforth no one might 
get out. They then began to raise a mound 
against the city wall, thinking that with so large 
an army at work, this would be the speediest 
way at taking the place. So they cut timber 
and built on either side of the intended mound 
a frame of logs placed cross-wise, in order that 
the material might not scatter. Thither they 



70 GREECE 

carried wood, stones, earth and anything which 
would fill up the vacant space. They continued 
raising the mound seventy days and seventy 
nights without intermission ; the army was 
divided into relays, and one party worked while 
the oth£r slept and ate. The Lacedaemonians' 
officers stood over them and kept them at work. 
The Plataeans, seeing the mound rising, con- 
structed a wooden frame, which they set upon 
the top of their own wall opposite the mound ; 
in this they inserted bricks, which they took 
from the neighboring houses ; the wood served 
to strengthen and bind the structure together 
p.s it increased in height ; they also hung cur- 
tains of skins and hides in front ; these were 
designed to protect the woodwork and the work- 
ers, and shield them against blazing arrows. The 
wooden v/all rose high, but the mound rose 
quickly, too. Then the Plataeans had a new 
devise; they made a hole in that part of the 
wall against wh^ch the mound pressed and drew 
in the earth. 

The Peloponnesians discovered what they 
were doing, and threw into the gap clay packed 
in wattles of reed, which could not scatter and 
like the loose earth be carried away. Where- 
upon the Plataeans, baffled in one plan, re- 
sorted to another. Calculating the direction, 
they dug a mine from the city to the mound 
and again drew the earth inward. For a long 
time their assailants did not find them out, and 
so what the Peloponnesians threw on was of 
little use, since the mound was always being 
drawn off below and settling into the vacant 
space. But in spite of all their efforts, the 
Plataeans were afraid that their numbers would 
never hold out against so great an army; and 
they devised yet another expedient. They left 
off working at the great building opposite the 
mound, and they built an inner wall projecting 



SIEGE OF PLATAEA 71 

inwards in the shape of a crescent, that if the 
first wall were taken the other might still be 
defensible. The enemy would be obliged to be- 
gin again and carry the mound right up to it, 
and as they advanced inwards, would have their 
trouble all over again. While the mound was 
rising the Peloponnesians brought battering en- 
gines up to the wall ; one which was moved for- 
ward on the mound itself shook a great part of 
the raised building, to the terror of the Platae- 
ans. They brought up others, too, at other 
points of the wall. But the Plataeans dropped 
nooses over the ends of these engines and drew 
them up ; they also let down huge beams sus- 
pended at each end by a long iron chain from 
two poles leaning on the wall and projecting over 
it. These beams they drew up at right angles 
to the advancing battering ram, and whenever 
at any point it was about to attack them they 
slackened their hold of the chains and let go 
the beam, which fell Math great force and snap- 
ped off the head of the ram. 

At length the Peloponnesians, finding that 
their engines were useless, and that the new 
wail was rising opposite to the mound, and per- 
ceiving that they could not without more formid- 
able means of attack hope to take the city, made 
preparations for a blockade. But first of all 
they resolved to try whether, the wind favor- 
ing, the place, which was but small, could not 
be set on fire; they were anxious not to incur 
the expense of a regular siege, and devised all 
sorts of plans in order to avoid it. So they 
brought faggots and threw them down from the 
mound along the space between it and the 
wall, which was soon filled up, when so many 
hands were at work; then they threw more fag- 
gots one upon another into the city as far as 
they could reach from the top of the mound, 
and casting in lighted brands with brimstone 



72 GREECE 

and pitch, set them all on fire. A flame arose 
of which the like had never before been made 
by the hand of man ; I am not speaking of the 
fires in the mountains, when the forest has 
spontaneously blazed up from the action of the 
wind and mutual attrition. There was a great 
conflagration, and the Plataeans, who had thus 
far escaped, were all but destroyed ; a con- 
siderable part of the town was unapproachable, 
and if a wind had come on and carried the 
flame that way, as the enemy hoped, they 
could not have been saved. It is said that 
there was a violent storm oi thunder and rain, 
which quenched the flames, and put an end 
to the danger. 

The Peloponnesians surrounded Plataea 
with a wall. Trenches, out of which they took 
clay for the bricks, were formed both on the 
inner and the outer side of the wall. The 
Plataeans had already conveyed to Athens their 
wives, children, and old men, with the rest of 
their unserviceable population. Those who re- 
mained during the siege were four hundred 
Plataeans, eighty Athenians, and a hundred, ten 
women to make bread. These were their exact 
numbers when the siege began. There was no 
one else, slave or freeman, within the walls. — ■ 
Thucydides, II. 

Provisions had grown scarce, so one stormy 
night [a division] stole out of the town gate 
with their ladders on their backs, reached the 
Spartan wall unperceived, set their ladders 
against it, mounted, and surprised the slumber- 
ing foe. The sentinels they cut to pieces, and 
escaped through the very midst of the Spartan 
army, all but one man ! The rest of the garri- 
son, cheered by this heroic act, held out much 
longer but at last they, too, had nothing more 
to eat, and there was nothing further to do ex- 
cept surrender. The Spartans put them all to 



SIEGE OF SPHACTERIA 73 

miserable deaths, and burnt the town down to 
the ground, all to please the Thebans.^Greece, 
Harrison, U23. 

Siege of Sphacteria. — Demosthenes in- 
sisted that the Athenians should immediately 
fortify Pylos. He showed them, that there was 
at hand plenty of timber and stone for the work ; 
that, besides the strength of its natural situation, 
the place itself was barren, as was also the great- 
est part of the adjacent country. 

Tools they had none for hewing and fitting 
the stones; but they picked out and carried such 
as they judged most proper for the work, and 
laid them one upon another as compactly as they 
could. The mud that was anywhere requisite, for 
want of vessels, they carried on their shoulders, 
bending forwards as much as possible, that it 
might have room to stick on, and holding it up 
with both hands clasped behind that it might not 
slide down. The largest part of it was so well 
fortified by nature, that it stood in no need of 
the defense of ait. 

The Lacedaemonians were now preparing k> 
attack the fortress both by land and sea, presum- 
ing it would easily be destroyed, as the work had 
been raised with so much precipitation and was 
defended by so small a number of hands. They 
designed to bar up the mouths of the harboi% so 
as to render the entrance impracticable to the 
Athen^'ans. For an isle wh^"ch is called Sphac- 
teria, lying before and at a small distance, locks 
:'t up and rendereth the mouths of the harbor 
narrow; that near the fortvess of the Athenians 
and Pylos, affords a passage for two ships only 
abreast; and that between the other points of 
land, for eight or nine. The whole of it, as 
f-esGit, was overgrown with wood and quite im- 
trod, and the compass of it at most is about fif- 
teen stadia. They were therefore intent on shut- 
ting up these enti^ances with ships moored close 



74 GREECE 

together, and their heads towards the sea. And 
to prevent the molestation apprehended, should 
the enemy take possession of this island, they 
threw into it a body of their heavy-armed, and 
posted another body on the opposite shore. The 
last body, who guarded that post, and were 
forced to continue in it, consisted of about four 
hundred and twenty, exclusive of the Helots who 
attended them. 

The Athenians had imagined a few days' 
siege would have worn out a body of men shut 
up in this barren island, and having only salt 
water for their drink. But this had been re- 
dressed by the Lacedaemonians, who had by a 
public edict encouraged all who were willing to 
carry over into the island meal and wine and 
cheese, and any other eatable which might en- 
able them to hold out, assigning a large pecuni- 
ary rev^ard for any successful attempt of this 
nature, and promising freedom to every Helot 
who carried them provisions. The Helots put- 
ting off from Peloponnesus (wherever they 
chanced, to be) landed by favor of the dark 
on the side of the island which lies upon the 
main-sea. Their chief precaution was to run 
over in a hard gale of wind. For whenever the 
wind blew from the sea, they were in less dan- 
ger of being discovered by the guard of triremes, 
which then could not safely lie quiet round the 
island. Such, further, as were expert at diving 
swam over through the harbor, dragging after 
them by a string bottles filled with poppies mixed 
up with honey and the powder of linseed. These 
for a time escaped discovery, but were after- 
wards closely watched. 

At Athens, in the meantime, the people, be- 
ing informed of the hardships to which their 
own forces were reduced, and that those in the 
island received supplies of provisions, were per- 
plexed how to act. They were full of appre- 



SIEGE OF SPHACTERIA 75 

hensions lest the winter should put a stop to 
their siege, being conscious of the impossibility 
of procuring them subsistence from any part of 
Peloponnesus ; and more so, as the soil about 
them was barren, and that even in summer they 
were not able to furnish them with necessary 
supplies ; that further, as no harbors were in the 
parts adjacent, there would be no commodious 
road for their shipping, 

Cleon gave his word that within twenty days 
he would either bring the Lacedaemonians alive 
or kill them on the spot. His vain words moved 
the Athenians to laughter. And N^'cias stand- 
ing up resigned his command at Pylos to him, 
and bade him take what forces he pleased along 
with him, and not be bold in words, out of 
harm's way, but go forth and perform some real 
service for the commonwealth. Cleon, at first, 
tried to draw back, disconcerted at the proposal, 
which he had never expected ; but the Athenians 
insisting, and Nicias loudly upbraiding him, he 
thus provoked, and fired with ambition, took 
upon him the charge, and said further, that 
within twenty days after he embarked, he would 
either kill the enemy upon the place, or b'ring 
them alive to Athens. This the Athenians were 
readier to laugh at than to believe, as on other 
occasions, also, his bold assertions and extrava- 
gances used to make them sport, and were pleas- 
ant enough. When the Athenians had passed 
the necessary vote for Clson's expedition, he 
made choice of Demosthenes, one of the generals 
at Pylos, to be his colleague, and proceeded to 
sail with all speed. Demosthenes divided the 
force into parties of two hundred more or less, 
who seized the highest points of the island in 
order that the enemy, being completely sur- 
rounded and d^'stracted by the number of their 
opponents, might not know whom they should 
face first, but might be exposed to missiles on 



76 GREECE 

every side. For as they attacked those who were 
in front, they would be assailed by those behind; 
and which ever way they moved, the light-armej 
t'^oops cf the enemy were sure to be in their rear. 
These were the Spartans' most embarrassing op- 
ponents, because they were armed with bows and 
javelins and sb'ngs and stones, which could be 
used with effect at a distance. They conquered 
in their very fl'ght, and when an enemy re- 
treated, pressed close at his heels. Such was the 
plan of the descent which Demosthenes had in 
his m'nd, and which he now carried into execu- 
tion. At length, finding that so lon^ as thay 
fought in the same narrow spot more and more 
of their men were wounded, they closed their 
ranks and fell back on the last fortification of 
the island, which was not far off, and where 
their other garrison was stationed. 

There was no sign of the end. Finally the 
general of the Messenian contingent came to 
Cleon and Demosthenes and told them that the 
aimy was throwing away its pains, but if they 
would give h^m some archers and light-armed 
troops and let him find a path by which he might 
get round in the rear of the Lacedaemonians, he 
thought that he could force the approach. Hav- 
ing obtained his request he started from a point 
out of sight of the enemy, and making h'S way 
wherever the broken ground afforded a footing 
and where the cliff was so steep that no guards 
had been set, he and his men with great difficulty 
got round unseen and suddenly appeared on the 
summit in their rear, striking panic into the 
astonished enemy and redoubling the courage 
of his own friends who were watching for his 
appearance. The Lacedaemonians were now as- 
sailed on both sides, and to compare a smaller 
thing to a greater, were in the same case with 
their own countrymen at Thermopylae. For as 
they perished when the Persians found a way 



CAUSE 77 

round by the path, so now the besieged garrison 
were attacked on both sides, and no longer re- 
sisted. The disparity of numbers, and the fail- 
ure of bodily strength arising from want of food, 
compelled them to fall back, and the Athenians 
were at length masters of the approaches. — 
Thucydides, IV. 

Expedition to Sicily 

Cause. — Segesta and Selinus in Sicily went 
to blows upon the differences between them con- 
cerning the bounds of their country. For though 
the river divided the territories of the several 
c"ties that were at variance, yet the people of 
Selinus passed over to the other side ,and seized 
upon the lands lying next to the river ; and en- 
croaching still by little and little, they gained the 
next to them, and laughed and jeered at those 
they thus abused. The matter was debated and 
decreed, that ambassadors should be sent to 
Athens, to desire their assistance for the relief 
of the oppressed cities, and withal to promise 
that they would do their utmost endeavor to 
serve the Athenians in all their concerns in 
Sicily. The Segestans promised a great sum of 
money foi' the carrying on of the war, and with 
all their power to oppose Syracuse, which city 
had formerly joined the Peloponnesian League 
and had led the other important cities of Sicily 
to do likewise. — Diodcriis. 

When the Segestans applied for aid Alci- 
biades was charmed at the opportunity which it 
seemed to afford for establishing a -great Athe- 
nian empire in Sicily, and talked the Athenians 
into an ecstacy of desire for the new sovereignty 
awaiting them (as they thought) over the sea. 
Nicias in vain struggled and strove against such 
wild dreams and visions. 

The Athenians, indeed, even in the lifetime 
of Pericles had already cast a longing eye upon 



78 GREECE 

Sicily, but did not attempt any thing till after 
his death. Then, they sent succor upon all oc- 
casion to those who were oppressed by the Syr- 
acusans, preparing the way for sending over a 
greater force. But Alcibiades . . . was the 
person v/ho inflamed this desire of theirs to the 
utmost, and prevailed upon them to sail out with 
a great fleet and unieitaks at once to make them- 
selves masters of the island, as they had already 
dene of all the important Aegaean Islands. Al- 
cibiades dreamed in the madness of his am- 
bition of the conquest not only of Sicily, but 
of Carthage and Libya, and ultimately of Italy 
and the Peloponnesus. The young men caught 
nre and "spouted tall talk," and talked wonders 
of the lands they were going to see ; and num- 
bers of them might be seen sitting in the wrest- 
ling grounds and public places drawing on the 
grounds the figure and situation of Carthage and 
Libya. Socrates and Meton, the astrologer, how- 
ever, never hoped for any good to the common- 
wealth from this war. Meton, it is said, feigned 
madness, caught up a burning torch, and made 
as if he would set his own house on fire. 

Urged on by an irresistible pressure, Nicias 
at last consented to assume the command of the 
expedition jointly with Alcibiades and Lamachus. 
Nicias was an upright, cautious, slow-footed, su- 
perstitious man, whose caution, it was supposed, 
would temper the heat, rashness, and enthusiasm 
of his fellow-generals. — Greece, Harrison, Uk-7- 
U8. 

Mutilation of the Statues of the God 
OF Commerce. — The mutilation of the images of 
Hermes most of which, in one night, had their 
faces all disfigured, terrified many persons. It 
was given out that it was done by the Corin- 
thians, for the sake of the Syracusans, who were 
their colony, in hopes that the Athenians, by 
such prodigies, might be induced to delay or 



MUTILATION OF STATUES 79 

abandon the war. Alike enraged and terrified 
at the thing, the council, as well as the assem- 
bly of the people, which was held frequently in 
a few days' space, examined diligently every 
thing that might administer ground for suspic- 
ion. During this examination certain slaves and 
strangers accused Alcibiades and some of his 
friends of defacing other images in the same 
manner, and of having profanely acted the 
sacred mysteries at a drunken meeting. The 
people were highly exasperated and incensed 
against Alcibiades upon this accusation. But 
when they perceived that all the seamen de- 
signed for Sicily were for him, and the soldiers 
also, and when the Argive and Mantinean aux- 
iliaries, a thousand men at arms, openly declared 
that they had undertaken this distant maritime 
expedition for the sake of Alcibiades, and that, 
if he was ill used, they would all go home, the 
Athenians contrived that some orators should 
stand up in the assembly and say, that it was 
a very absurd thing for one who was created 
general of such an army with absolute power, 
after his troops were assembled, and the con- 
federates were come should lose the opportunity. 
And, therefore, let him set sail at once, good 
fortune attend him ; and when the war should 
be at an end, he might then in person make his 
c'efense according to the laws. Alcibiades per- 
ceived the malice of this postponement, and, ap- 
pearing in the assembly, represented that it was 
monstrous foi' him to be sent with the command 
of so large an army, when he lay under such 
r.rcusrt'ons and calumnies; t'lat he deserved to 
die, if he could not clear himself of the crimes 
objected to him; but when he had so done, and 
had proved his innocence, he should then cheer- 
fully apply himslf to the war as standing no 
longer in fear of false accusers. But he could 
not prevail with the people, who commanded him 



80 GREECE 

to se.'l immed^iately. — Plutarch, Alcibiades. 

About the middle of summer the expedition 
started for Sic'ly. All the vessels were manned 
with the best c"ews which could be obtained. — 
Thucydides, VII. 

i^^LciBiADES — A Turn-coat. — In Alcibiades' 
abserice, his enemies attacked him more violently, 
and confounded together the breaking the images 
v/ith the profanation of the mysteries, as though 
both had been committd in pursuance of the 
same conspiracy for changing the government. 
The people proceeded to imprison all that were 
accused, without distinction, and without hear- 
ing them, and repented now, considering the im- 
portance of the charge, that they had not imme- 
diately brought Alcibiades to his trial, and given 
jiidliricnt arainst him. And in conclus^'on, they 
sent to recall him. He was condemned as con- 
tumac'cus upon his not appearing, his property 
wrs confiscated and it v/as decreed that all the 
priests and priestesses should solemnly curse 
him. Alcibiades, lying under these heavy decrees 
passed over into Peloponnesus and remained 
somet'me at Argos, But being there in fear of 
his enemies, and seeing himself utterly hopeless 
of return to his native country, he sent to Spar- 
ta, desiring safe conduct, and assuring them that 
he would make them amends by his future se^"- 
viccs for all the mischief he had done them while 
he was their enemy. The Spartans giving h'm 
the sccur-^ty he desired, he went eagerly, was 
well received, and, at his veiy first coming, suc- 
ceeded in inducing them without any further 
caution or delay, to send aid to the Syracusans ; 
and so roused and excited them that they forth- 
with despatched Gylippus into Sicily to crush 
the forces which the Athenians had in Sicily. 
Then he urged them to renew the v/ar upon the 
Athenians at home. — Plutarch, Alcibiades. 

Siege of Syracuse. — And now began the 



SIEGE OF SYRACUSE 81 

most famous and most disastrous siege of ancient 
times. Syracuse was so large and so admirably 
situated, with high ground behind it and the 
sea in front, that it could not be taken in a 
day, or in many days. Besides, the folly and 
prosrastination of Nicias had given the people 
an opportunity to fortify it strongly, and it could 
not be taken by assault. The only chance there- 
fore, was to starve it into submission by cutting 
off all channels of communications by land and 
by sea. — Greece, Harriscn, ^-52-.^53. 

The Syracusans conceiving that their city 
was safe, blocked up the mouth of their haven 
with ships joined, and fastened together, to 
hinder the flight of the Athenians by sea. To 
which end they made a bridge with boats, gal- 
leys, and other ships fixed with anchors, com- 
pacted and fastened together with iron chains. 

And now the crashing of ships one against 
another, and the cries and shouts of combatants 
and dying men, was heard in every place 
throughout the whole harbor for sometimes one 
single vessel was surrounded, and struck through 
with the beaks of many and so the water forc- 
ing in at the breaches, the ship with all the men, 
in it, sunk together. And many endeavored to 
save themselves by swimming, but were struck 
through with darts, and wounded with spears, 
and so miserably perished. 

For what by storms of darts, crashing of 
ships, brushing off of oars, increase of noise and 
ciamor of them that were engaged and loud 
shouts of the army upon the shore, encouraging 
them upon the sea, none heard what orders were 
given; for the shore was full of soldiers, the 
Syracusans in one part, and the Athenians in 
another. At length the Athenians nearest to 
the city were forced to fly. Presently after, they 
that were next gave back, till at length the whil" 
fleet made away. Whereupon the Syracusans 



82 GREECE 

pursued with a great shout. — Diodorus.- 

Among the many miserable spectacles with 
the land loice, that appeared up and down in 
the camp, t^.e saddest sight of all was Nicias 
himself, laboring under his malady, and un- 
worthily ledi.ced to the scantiest supply of all 
the accomrncdations necessary for human wants, 
yet bearing up under this illness, and doing and 
undergoing more than many in perfect health. 
And it was plainly evident that all this toil v/as 
not for himseli, or fiom any regard to his own 
life, but that purely for the sake of those under 
his command he would not abandon hope. And 
indeed the lest were given over to weeping and 
lamentation through fear or sorrow, but he, 
whenever he yielded to anything of the kind, 
did so, it was evident, from reflection upon the 
shame and dishonor of the enterprise, con- 
trasted with the greatness and glory of the 
success he had anticipated, and not only the 
sight of his person, but also, the recollection of 
the arguments used to prevent this expedition 
enhance a their sense of tiie undeservedncss of 
his sufferings. — Plutarch, Nicias. 

The captive Athenians and allies they de- 
posited in the quarries, v/hich they thought 
would be the safest place of confinement. 
There were great numbers of them, and they 
were crowded in a deep and narrow place. At 
first the sun by day was still scorching and 
suffocating, for they had no roof over their 
heads, while the autumn nights were cold, and* 
the extremes of temperature engendered violent 
disorders. The corpses of those who died from 
their wounds, exposure to heat and cold, and 
the like, lay heaped one upon another. During 
eight months they were allowed only about half 
a pint of water and a pint of food a day. Every 
kind of misery which could befall man in such 
a place befell them. This was the condition of 



WORK OF ALCIBIADES 83 

all the captives for about ten weeks. The whole 
number of the public prisoners is not accurately 
known, but they were not less than seven thou- 
sand. Fleet and army perished from the face 
of the earth, nothing was saved, and of the 
many who went forth few returned home. Thus 
ended the Sicilian expedition. — Thucydides, VII. 

It is said that the Athenians would not be- 
lieve their loss, in a great degree because of 
the person who first brought them news of it. 
For a certain stranger, it seems, coming to Pi- 
raeus, and there sitting , in a barber's shop, be- 
gan to talk of what had happened, as if the 
Athenians already knew all that had passed ; 
which the- barber hearing, before he acquainted 
anybody else, ran as fast as he could up into 
the city, addressed himself to the Archons, and 
presently spread it about in the public place. On 
which, there being everywhere, as may be imag- 
ined, terror and consternation, the Archons sum- 
moned a general assembly, and there brought in 
the man and questioned him how he came to 
know. And he, giving no satisfactory account, 
was taken for a spreader of false intelligence 
and a disturber of the city, and was, therefore, 
fastened to the wheel and racked a long time, 
till other messengers arrived that related the 
whole disaster particularly. So hardly was 
Nicias believed to have suffered the calamity 
which he had often predicted. — Plutarch, Nicias. 
Work of Alcibiades. 

The renown which Alcibiades earned at 
Sparta by his public services was equalled 
by the admiration he attracted by his private 
life; he captivated and won over everybody 
by h"s conformity to Spartan habits. People 
who saw him wearing his hair close cut, 
bathing in cold water, eating coarse meal, and 
dining on black broth doubted, or rather could 
not believe, that he ever had a cook in his house, 



84 GREECE 

or had ever seen a perfumer, or had worn a 
mantle of Milesian purple. For he had, as it 
was observed, this peculiar talent and artifice 
for gaining men's affections, that he could at 
once comply with and really embrace and enter 
into their habits and ways of life, and change 
faster than the chameleon. One color, indeed, 
they say the chameleon cannot assume; it can- 
not make itself appear white; but Alcibiades, 
whether with good men or with bad, could adapt 
himself to his company, and equally wear the 
appearance of virtue or vice. At Sparta he was 
devoted to athletic exercises, was frugal and re- 
served; in Ionia, luxurious, gay and indolent; 
in Thessaly, ever on horseback ; and when he 
lived with Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap, he 
exceeded the Persians themselves in magnificence 
and pomp. Not that his natural disposition 
changed so easily, nor that his real character 
was so variable, but, whenever he was sensible 
that by pursuing his own inclinations he might 
give offense to those with whom he had occasion 
to converse, he transformed himself into any 
shape and adopted any fashion, that he observed 
to be more agreeable to them. — Plutarch, Alci- 
biades. 

Agis, King of Sparta, [carrying out the sug- 
gestion of Alcibiades] seized a strong place called 
Decelea, in the heart of Attica, and kept an un- 
conquerable garrison there, permanently, which 
ate at the soul of Attica like an ulcer, ravaged 
the fields, prevented the sowing of grain, de- 
stroyed the cattle, allured the Attic slaves to 
run away, and rendered the roads impassable. 
The only way Athens could now get food was 
artificially, through the vital tube, the Long 
Wall. 

Alcibiades urged the unseamanlike Lace- 
daemonians to build a fieet to assist the lonians 
to shake off the Athenian yoke. . . . An- 



ALCIBIADES 85 

other blow to Athens was the alliance which was 
now made between Sparta and the Persian 
satrap Tissaphernes, Tissaphernes promised to 
pay any Spartan troops that would come over 
and help to overthrow the Athenian supremacy 
in Ionia, which kept Ionia free from Persia. 
As Sparta loved even Persia better than Athens, 
her own blood, she committed the unspeakable 
baseness of agreeing to this unhallowed and un- 
natural alliance: she shamefully agreed to de- 
liver up to an abominable Persian despot all the 
f:ee glorious, liberty-lov:'ng Greek cities in Asia 
Minor. — Greece, HaiTison, 459-4-61. 

Alcibi'ades, himself, went to sea, procured 
the immediate revolt of almost all Ionia, and co- 
operating with the Lacedaemonian generals, did 
great mischief to the Athenians. But Agis was 
his enemy, impatient of his glory, as almost 
every enterprise and every success was ascribed 
to Alcibiades. Others also, of the most powerful 
and ambitious amongst the Spartans, were pos- 
sessed with jealousy of him, and at last, pre- 
vailed with the magistrates in the city to send 
Oideis into lon^a that he should be killed. Al- 
cibiades however, had secret intelligence of this. 
At last he retired to Tissaphernes, the king of 
Persia's satrap, for his security and immediately 
became the first and most influential person 
about him.. Indeed the charm of daily inter- 
coui se with him was more than any character 
could resist or any disposition escape. . Even 
those v^ho feared and envied him could not but 
take delight, and have a sort of kindness for 
h'm, v/hen they saw and were in his company. 
So that Tissaphernes, otherwise a cruel char- 
acter, and above all other Persians, a hater of 
the Greeks, was yet so won by the flatteries of 
Alcibiades, that he set himself even to exceed 
him in responding to them. The most beautiful 
of his parks, containing salubrious stream.s and 



86 GREECE 

meadows, where he had built pavilions, and 
places of retirement royally and exquisitely 
adorned, received by his direction the name of 
Alcibiades, and was always so called and so 
spoken of. 

Thus Alcibiades, quitting the interests of 
the Spartans, whom he could no longer trust, 
because he stood in fear of Agis, endeavored to 
do them ill office, and render them odious to Tis- 
saphernes, who by his means, was hindered 
from assisting them vigorously, and from finally 
ruining the Athenians. For his advice was to 
furnish the Spartans but sparingly with money; 
when the Athenians and Spartans wasted their 
strength upon one another, they would both be- 
come ready to submit to the king. Tissaphernes 
readily pursued his counsel, and openly expressed 
the liking and admiration which he had for him; 
and the Athenians, now in their misfortunes, re- 
pented them of their severe sentence against 
him. And he, on the other side began to be troub- 
led for them and to fear lest, if that common- 
wealth were utterly destroyed, he should fall into 
the hands of the Lacedaemonians, his enem'es. 
At that time the whole strength of the Athe- 
nians was in Samos. Their fleet maintained itself 
here, and issued from these headquarters to 
reduce such as had revolted, and to protect the 
rest of their territories ; in one way or other still 
contriving to be a match for their enemies at 
sea. What they stood in fear of was Tissa- 
phernes and the Phoenician fleet of one hundred. 
and fifty galleys, which was said to be already 
under sail ; if those came there remained then no 
hopes for the commonwealth of Athens. Under- 
standing this, Alcibiades sent secretly to the 
chief men of the Athenians, who were then at 
Samos, giving them hopes that we would make 
Tissaphernes their friend ; he was willing, he 
implied, to do some favor, not to the people, nor 



THE FOUR HUNDRED 87 

in reliance upon them, but to the better citizens, 
if only, like biave men, they would make the 
attempt to put down the insolence of the people, 
and by taking upon the the govei^nment, would 
endeavor to save the city from ruin. — Plutarch, 
Alcibiades. 

The Four Hundred. 

Therefore, . . . the rich men exerted 
so overwhelming an influence that they car- 
ried out the plan of Alcibiades for changing 
the government. . . . Citizens knovN^n to be 
zealous for the constitution were secretly assas- 
s'nated ; the town was terrorized by deeds 
of villainy and intimidation in the dark; no- 
body knev/ who did and who didn't belong to 
the plot ; and at last the craven Assembly, para- 
lyzed with fear, was brought to abolish the 
democratic form of government and all the 
magistracies, and hand over the state into the 
clutches of Fou: Hundred of the Nobles. . . 

Great and lamentable was the outcry of the 
army at Samos when it heard of what had been 
done at Athens; the cry went to Heaven, and 
they swore with great oaths that the democracy 
should be preserved. Were they not the true 
body of Athenian citizens, since those at home 
had forever lost that name by abandoning the 
constitution? Why should not they, far from 
home as they were far away in these blue 
Aegean seas — m.eet together, hold a popular as- 
sembly, such as was their imperial right and 
custom, and elect the regular magistrates of the 
state? And so they did. The Democracy-on-the- 
water was thus drawn up in deadly ai'ray against 
the Oligarchy-on-the-land. 

And now presto! Alcibiades changes again. 
He is won over to their side by the democratic 
leaders and breaks off all connection and inter- 
course with the Four Hundred, doubtless think- 



88 GREECE 

ing that a bird in the hand was worth two in 
the bush — that a Democracy-on-the-Deep was 
far better than an Oligarchy-in-the-Distance ; 
especially as the Four Hundred had slighted him 
— Alcibiades. 

He was elected general of the democratic 
fleet, in spite of the remembrance that most of 
the fearful misfortunes of the Athenians were 
due to him — that he had urged and insisted upon 
the Syracusan War — that he had then turned 
traitor and urged and insisted on the Spartans 
sending Gylippus to Syracuse — that he had urged 
and insisted upon Agis, the Spartan King, occu- 
pying Decelea and ravaging the Attic territory — 
and that he had brought about the revolt of 
Chios. The soldiers were so infatuated by his 
incomparable genius, by his "tall talk," by his 
beauty, wit and eloquence, above all by their 
notion that he was all-powerful with Tissa- 
phernes, that they went blindfold and headlong 
into this election, forgave him his innumerable 
sins against them and Athens the Beloved, and 
devoutly believed that now — now at last — he was 
going to . . . return good for all the evil 
he had done. — Greece, Harrison, Jt.63-Ji.65. 

Return of Alcibiades. 

He, however, desired not to owe his return 
to the mere grace and commiseration of the 
people, and resolved to come back, not with 
empty hands, but with glory, and after some 
service done. 

Despairing of the help of the slippery- 
tongued Tissaphernes, the Spartans moved their 
fleet from Ionia to the Hellespont, with a view 
to acting in concert with Pharzabazus, the Per- 
sian satrap of Northern Asia Minor, and to as- 
sist the towns in that part of the country which 
puB azias o::^ snoixuB s^m '{^j9U8S-ure:^d^o u'biuoui 
-a^peoBq aqj^ •suaq:^V uiojj asoo^ ua>iojq pnq 



RETURN OF ALCIBIADES 80 

command the approaches to the Bosphorus and 
the Hellespont, for thus he should be able to 
cut off Athens from her supplies of wheat and 
grain which came from the Black Sea. 

As soon as the Athenians saw what their 
enemies were after, off they shot out to sea from 
Samos, following the trail of the Lacedaemonian 
fleet like blood-hounds. 

Receiving intelligence that the Spartan ad- 
miral, had sailed with his whole army into the 
Hellespont, and that the Athenians had followed 
him, Alcibiades hurried to succor the Athenian 
commanders. They not only secured to them- 
selves the Hellespont, but by force drove the 
Lacedaemonians from out of all the rest of the 
sea. They intercepted some letters written to 
the ephors, which gave an account of this fatal 
overthrow, after their short, laconic manner: 
"Our hopes are at an end. Mindarus is slain. 
The men starve. We know not what to do." 

And now Alcibiades began to desire to see 
his native country again, or rather to show his 
fellow-citizens a person who had gained many 
victories for them. He set sail for Athens, the 
ship that accompanied him being adorned with 
great numbers of shields and other spoils, and 
towing after them many galleys taken from the 
enemy, and the ensigns and ornaments of many 
others which he had sunk and destroyed ; all of 
them together amounting to two hundred. 

As he sailed into the harbor great crowds 
flocked to meet the vessels. Wonderment, mixed 
with a desire to see Alcibiades, was the prevail- 
ing sentiment of the multitude. Of him they 
spoke: some asserting that he was the best of 
citizens, and that in his sole instance banish- 
ment had been ill-deserved. He had been the 
victim of plots, hatched in the brains of people 
less able than himself, however much they might 
excel in pestilent speech ; men whose one prin- 



90 GREECE 

ciple of statecraft was to look to their private 
gains ; whereas this man's policy had ever been 
to uphold the common weal, as much by his 
private means as by all the power of the state. 
His own choice, eight years ago, when the charge 
of impiety in the matter of the mysteries was 
still fresh, would have been to submit to trial at 
once. It was his personal foes, who had suc- 
ceeded in postponing that undeniably just pro- 
cedure; who waited till his back was turned, 
and then robbed him of his fatherland. Then 
it was that, being made the very slave of cir- 
cumstance, he was driven to court by the men 
he hated most ; and at a time when his own life 
was in daily peril, he must see his dearest 
friends and fellow-citizens, nay, the very state 
itself, bent on a suicidal course. 

Others, however, insisted that for all their 
past miseries and misfortunes Alcibiades alone 
was responsible : "If more trials were still in 
store for the state, here was the master m'schief- 
maker ready at his post to precipitate them." 

When the vessels came to their moorings 
close to the land, Alcibiades, from fear of his 
enemies, was unwilling to disembark at once. 
Mounting on the quarterdeck, he scanned the 
multitude, anxious to make certain of the pres- 
ence of his friends. Presently his eyes lit upon 
his cousin, and then on the rest of his relations 
and other friends. 

As soon as he was landed, the multitude who 
came out to meet him scarcely seemed so much 
as to see any of the other captains, but came in 
throngs about Alcibiades, and saluted him with 
acclamations, and still followed him ; those who 
could press near him crowned him with garlands, 
and they who could not come up so close yet 
stayed to behold him afar off, and the old men 
pointed him out, and showed him to the young 
ones. Nevertheless, this public joy was mixed 



BATTLE OF AEGOSPOTAMI 91 

with some tears, and the present happiness was 
allayed by the remembrances of the miseries 
they had endured. They made reflections, that 
they could not have so unfortunately miscarried 
in Sicily, if they had left the management of 
their affairs to Alcibiades, since, upon his under- 
taking the administration, when they were in a 
manner driven from the sea, and could scarce 
defend the suburbs of their city by land, he had 
raised them up from this low and deplorable 
condition, and had not only restored them to 
their ancient dominion of the sea, but had also 
made them everywhere victorious over their 
enemies on land. The people crowned him with 
crowns of gold, and created him general both at 
land and sea, with' absolute power. — Plutarch, 
Alcibiades. 

After he had with all courteous behavior 
saluted the people, he called an assembly, where 
having made a long defense for the clearing of 
his innrccnce, he so insinuated himself into the 
good-will of the people, that all cast the blame 
of the dooms and judgments against him upon 
the city itself; and therefore they restored all 
his estate, not long before confiscated, and threw 
the records of h:'s condemnation into the sea. — 
Diodoriis, XIII. 

Battle of Aegospotami. 

Lysander commanded the mariners and 
pilots to go on board at dawn, as if there 
should be a battle as soon as it was day, 
and to sit there in order, and without any 
noise, excepting what should be commanded, 
and in like manner that the land army 
should remain quietly in their ranks by the 
sea. But the sun rising, and the Athenians 
challenging them to battle, he, though he had 
had his ships all drawn up and manned before 
daybreak, nevertheless did not stir. He merely 



92 GREECE 

sent some small boats to those who lay foremost, 
and bade them keep still and stay in their order; 
not to be disturbed, and none of them to sail out 
and offer battle. So about evening, the Athen- 
ians sailing back, he would not let the seamen 
go out of the ships before two or three, which 
he had sent to espy, were returned, after seeing 
the enemies disembark. And thus they did the 
next day, and the third, and so to the fourth. 
So that the Athenians grew extremely confident, 
and disdained their enemies as if they had been 
afraid and daunted. 

But on the fifth day, the Athenians having 
sailed towards them, and gone back again as 
they were used , to do, very proudly and full of 
contempt, Lysander sending some ships, as usual, 
to lookout, commanded the masters of them that 
when they saw the Athenians go to land, they 
should row back aga^'n vv^ith all their speed, and 
that when they were half-way across, they should 
lift up a brazen shield from the foredeck, as the 
sign of battle. And he himself sailing round, 
encouraged the pilots and masters of the ships, 
and exhoited them to keep all their men to their 
places, seamen and soldiers alike, and as soon 
as ever the sign should be given, to row up 
boldly to their enemies. Accordingly, when the 
shield had been lifted up from the ships, and 
the trumpet from the admiral's vessel had 
sounded for the battle, the ships rowed up, and 
the foct soldiers strove to get along by the shore 
to the promontory. The distance there between 
the two continents is fifteen furlongs, which, by 
the zeal and eagerness of the rowers, was quickly 
traversed. Conon, one of the Athenian com- 
manders, was the first who saw from the land 
the fleet advancing, and shouted out to embark, 
and in the greatest distress bade some and en- 
treated others, and some he forced to man the 
ships. But all his diligence signified nothing,* 



TYRANNIES 95 

and had performed a great and noble service 
to Hellas in the most perilous of emergencies. 
On the contrary, they are willing to offer peace 
on the teims now specified — namely: "that the 
Long Walls and the fortifications of Piraeus 
should be destroyed ; that the Athenian fleet, 
with the exception of twelve vessels, should be 
surrendered ; that the exiles should be restored ; 
and lastly, that the Athenians should acknowl- 
edge the headship of Sparta in peace and war, 
leaving to her the choice of friends and foes, and 
following her lead by land and sea. A small 
minority raised their voice in opposition, but 
the majority were strongly in favor of the 
proposition, and the resolution was passed to 
accept the peace. After that, Lysander sailed 
into the Piraeus, and the exiles were readmitted. 
And so they fell to levelling the fortifications and 
walls with much enthusiasm, to the accompani- 
ment of female flute-players, deeming that day 
the beginning of liberty to Greece. — Hellenica 1, 
Xenophon. 

Tyrannies — Spartan Supremacy. 
The downfall of her foe of course left Spar- 
ta supreme over all the places that had been 
subject to Athens, and all that Lysander now 
had to do was to go through the cities and es- 
tablish oligarchies in each of ten citizens favor- 
able to Sparta, and a Spartan Harmost or man- 
aging governor. These Spartan . . . har- 
mosts, ruled with a leaden hand, and their op- 
pressions made them odious to all the Greek 
states. The vSpartans, from having been very 
poor, passed triumphantly into the possession of 
great wealth ; the state once established by 
Lycurgus on a foundation of poverty and self- 
denial became thoroughly corrupt; and a few 
rich and powerful citizens changed the character 
of the state, leaving the other citizens jealous 
and discontented. — Greece, Harriscn, Jf73. 



Aeginetans and many another Hellene city. On 
the following day the public assembly met, and, 
after debate, it was resolved to block up all the 
harbors save one, and to make all other neces- 
saiy preparation for a siege. Such were the 
conceins of the men of Athens. In a moment of 
time, after the sea-fight, the whole of Hellas had 
revolted from Athens, with the solitary excep- 
tion of the men of Samos. 

In obedience to a general order of Pausanias, 
the other king of Lacedaemon, a levy of the 
Lacedaemonians was set in motion for a cam- 
pa'gn. The king put himself at their head and 
marched against Athens, encamping in the gym- 
nasium, of the Academy, as it is called. Lysan- 
der had now reached Aegina, where, having got 
together as many of the former inhabitants as 
possible, he formally reinstated them in their 
city. He then pillaged the island of Salamis, and 
finally came to moorings off Piraeus with one 
hundred and fifty ships of the line, and estab- 
lished a strict blockade against all merchantships 
entering that harbor. 

The Athenians finding themselves besieged 
by land and sea, were in sore perplexity what to 
do. Without ships, without allies, without pro- 
visions, the belief gained hold upon them that 
there was no way of escape. They must now, 
in their turn, suffer what they had themselves 
inflicted upon others ; not in retaliation, indeed, 
for ills received, but out of sheer insolence, over- 
riding the citizens of petty states. In this frame 
of mind they schooled themselves to endurance; 
and, albeit many succumbed to starvation, no 
thought of truce or reconciliation with their 
foes was breathed. A general assembly was 
convened at Sparta in which the Corinthians and 
Thebans more particularly, urged the meeting 
not to come to terms with the Athenians, but 
to destroy them. The Lacedaemonians replied 
that they would never reduce to slavery a city 
which was itself an integral portion of Hellas,| 



^-d^ 



FALL OF ATHENS 93 

because the men were scattered about : for as 
soon as they came out of the ships, expecting 
no such matter, some went to market, others 
walked about the country, or went to sleep in 
their tents, or got their dinners ready, being, 
through their commanders' want of skill, as far 
as possible from any thought of what was to 
happen ; and the enemy now coming up with 
shouts and noise, Conon, with eight ships, sailed, 
out. The Peloponnesians falling upon the rest, 
some they took quite empty, and some they de- 
stroyed while they were fillmg; the m_en, mean- 
time, coming unarmed and scattered to help, 
died at the^r ships, or, flying by land, were slain, 
their enemies disembarking and pursuing them. 
Lysander took three thousand prisoners, with 
the generals, and the whole fleet, excepting those 
which fled with Conon. So taking their ships in 
tow, and having plundered their tents, with pipe 
and songs of victory, he sailed back, having ac- 
complished a great work v/ith small pains. The 
Peloponnes'^an War, after having been the de- 
struction of more commanders than all the pre- 
vious wars of Greece put together, was now 
put an end to by the good counsel and ready 
conduct of one man. — Plutarch, Lysander. 

Fall of Athens. 

It was night when the evil tidmjrs reached 
Athens, on receint of which a bitter v/ail of 
woe broke forth. From Piraeus, following 
the line of the Lon^ Walls ud to the hea.>'t 
of the city, it swept and swelled, as each 
man to his neighbor passed on the news. On 
that night no man slept. There was moui^ning 
and sorrow for those that were lost, but the 
lamentation for the dead was merged in even 
deeper sorrow for themselves, as they Dictured 
the evils they were about to suffer, the like of 
which they had themselves inflicted upon the i 



95 GREECE 

The Athenian DemocRx\cy Restored. 

A fitting epilogue to such a drama is the 
sharp Tyranny of the Thirty Tyrants, which now 
Ciowed and exulted over the downfall of stricken 
Athens and her great democracy. Lysander, 
namely, helped thirty of the most violent among 
the nobles to overthrow the last lingering rem- 
nant of popular government in Attica, and set 
themselves up as the representatives of the state. 
Critias was the ringleader of these. A frantic 
scene ensued; . . . hundreds weltered in 
their blood at the beck and call of these blood- 
thirsty monsters; such violence, wickedness, and 
crelty as had never before been known in en- 
lightened Athens, celebrated the advent of these 
m_urderous wretches. Worse still, they were pro- 
tected in their deviltries by a Spartan garrison 
— a gang of hateful foreigners who gloated over 
the shame of the kindred of Pericles and Aris- 
tides, of Socrates and Aeschylus. 

But, it seems, even this Gehenna had an end ; 
the citizens who had been banished now gathered 
in a half-crazed band and, after eight months of 
suffering, marched upon their town. Drawn 
battles were fought, and at last the Spartans 
saws that it was utterly impossible for them to 
protect the Thirty. The democracy was restored 
and showed plainly enough that whatever might 
have been its shortcomings in the past, it had 
never perpetrated such atrocities as the oligarch- 
ical governments of the Four Hundred and the 
Thirty. 

Thus the Dying Lion suddenly came to life 
again. — Greece, Harrison, UIO. 

Agesilaus. 

Charoclea. — Archidamus having reigned 

gloriously over the Lacedaemonians, left behind 

him two sons, Agis, the older, Agesilaus, much 

the younger. Now the succession belonging 



AGESILAUS 97 

to Agis by law, Agesilaiis, who in all prob- 
ability was to be but a private man, was edu- 
cated according to the usual discipline of the 
country, hard and severe, and meant to teach 
young men to obey their superiors. Sparta 
was called "the tamer of men," because by 
early strictness of education, they, more than 
any other nation, trained the citizens to obedi- 
ence to the laws, and made them tractable 
and patient of subjection, as horses that are 
broken in while colts. The law did not im- 
pose this harsh rule on the heirs apparent of 
the kingdom. But Agesilaus, whose good for- 
tune it was to be born a younger brother, was 
consequently bred to all the arts of obedience, 
and so the better fitted for the government, when 
it fell to his share; hence it was that he proved 
the most popular-tempered of the Spartan kings, 
his early life having added to his natural kingly 
and commanding qualities, the gentle and human 
feelings of a citizen. He was one of the highest 
spirits, emulous above any of his companions, 
ambitious of preeminence in every thing, and 
showed an impetuosity and fervor of mind 
which irresistibly carried him through all prop- 
ositions or difficulty he could meet with. He 
had one leg shorter than the other, but this 
deformity was little observed in a general beauty 
of person in youth. And the easy way in which 
he bore it [he being the first always to pass a 
jest upon himself] went far to make it disre- 
garded. And indeed his high spirit and eager- 
ness to distinguish himself were all the more 
conspicuous by it, smce he never let his lame- 
ness withhold h:m from any toil or any brave 
action. Neither his statue nor picture are ex- 
tant, he never allowing them in his life, and 
utterly forbidding them to be made after his 
death. He is said to have been a little man, of 
a contemptible presence ; but the goodness of his 



98 GREECE 

humors, and his constant cheerfulness and play- 
fulness of temper, always free from anything 
of moroseness or haughtiness, made him more at- 
tractive, even to his old age, than the most beau- 
tifitl and youthful men of the nation. 

In so great an army, you should scarce find 
a comm.on soldier lie on a coarser mattress, than 
Agesilaus ; he was so indifferent to the varieties 
of heat and cold, that all the seasons, as the gods 
sent them, seemed natural to him. The Greeks 
that inhabited Asia were much pleased to see 
the g-cat lords and governors of Persia, with 
all the pride, cruelty, and luxury in which they 
lived, trembling and bowing before a man in a 
poor threadbare cloak. — Plutarch, Agesilaus. 

Persia Tries To Win the Supremacy of the 
Seas from Sparta. 

When Agesilaus was newly entered upon the 
government, there came news from iVsia, that the 
Persian king was making great naval prepara- 
tions, resolving with a high hand to dispossess 
the Spartans of their maritime supremacy. 

Many parts of Asia now revolting from the 
Persians, Agesilaus restored order in the cities, 
and without bloodshed or banishment of any of 
their members, re-established the proper consti- 
tution in the governments, and now resolved to 
carry away the war from the seaside, and to 
march further up into the country, and to attack 
the king of Persia himself in his own home in 
Susa, not willing to let the monarch sit idle 
in his chair, playing umpire in the conflicts of 
the Greeks, and bribing their popular leaders. 
But these great thoughts were interrupted by 
unhappy news from Sparta, which was then in- 
volved in a great war; 

Others could not. 
She doth herself o'erthrow. 
What better can we say of those jealousies, and 



BATTLE 99 

that league and conspiracy of the Greeks, which 
recalled into Greece the war which had been 
banished out of her. 

Happy was Sparta, meanwhile, in the justice 
and modesty of Agesilaus, and in the deference 
he paid to the laws of his country; who immedi- 
ately upon receipt of his orders, though in the 
midst of his high fortune and power, and in 
full hope of great and glorious success, gave all 
up and instantly departed, ''his object un- 
achieved," leaving many regrets behind him 
among his allies in Asia. — Plutarch, Agesilaus. 

The coin of Persia was stamped with the 
figure of an archer; Agesilaus said, that a thou- 
sand Persian archers had driven him out of 
Asia; meaning the money that had been laid out 
in bribing the demagogues and the orators in 
Thebes and Athens, and thus inciting those two 
states to hostility against Sparta. 

Having passed the Hellespont, he marched 
by land through Thrace, not begging or entreat- 
ing a passage anywhere, only he sent his mes- 
sengers to them, to demand whether they would 
have him pass as a friend or as an enemy. 

Agesilaus, having gained Thermopylae and 
passed quietly through Phocis, as soon as he had 
enteied Bocotia, and p'tched his camp near 
Chaeronea, at once met with an eclipse of the sun, 
and with ill news from the navy, the Spartan 
admiral being beaten and slain at Cnidos by 
Conon. 

The battle was fiercely carried on on both 
sides, especially near Agesilaus' person,, whose 
new guard of fifty volunteers stood him in great 
stead that day, and saved his life. They fought 
with great valor, and interposed their bodies 
frequently between him and danger, yet could 
they not so preserve him, but that he received 
many wounds through his armor with lances 



100 GREECE 

and swords, and was with much difficulty gotten 
off alive by their mal-cing a ring about him, and 
so guarding him, with the slaughter of many of 
the enemy and the . loss of many of their own 
number. 

Agesilaus, sore wounded as he was, would 
not be borne to his tent till he had been first 
cairied about the field, and had seen the dead 
conveyed within his encampment. 

Thence he returned to his own country, 
where his way and habits of life quickly excited 
the affection and admiration of the Spartans; 
for, unlike other generals, he came home from 
foreign lands the same man that he went out, 
having not so learned the fashions of other 
countries as to forget his own, much less to dis- 
like or despise them. He followed and respected 
all the Spartan customs, without any change 
either in the manner of his supping, or bathing, 
or his wife's apparel, as if he had never traveled 
over the river Eurotas. So also with his house- 
hold furniture and his own armor, nay, the very 
gates of his house were so old that they might 
well be thought of Aristodemus's setting up. His 
daughter's Canathrum was no richer than that 
of anyone else. The Canathrum, as they call it, 
is a chair or chariot made of wood, in the shape 
cf a Griffin, on which the children and young- 
virgins are carried in processions. — Plutarch, 
Agesilaus. 

Persia Retains Her Power in Asia and 
Gains Two Islands. — When Conon and Phar- 
nabazus with the Persian navy were grown mas- 
ters of the sea, and had not only infested the 
coast of Laconia, but also rebuilt the walls of 
Athens, the Lacedaemonians thought fit to treat 
of peace with the king of Persia. To that end 
they sent Antalcidas to Tiribazus, basely and 
wickedly betraying the Asiatic Greeks, on whose 



DEATH GF AGESILAUS 101 

behalf Agesilaus had made the war. But no 
part of this dishonor fell upon Agesilaus, the 
whole being transacted by Antalcidas, who was ■ 
his bitter enemy, and was urgent for peace upon 
any terms, because war was sure to increase the 
power and reputation of Agesilaus. — Plutarch, 
Agesilaus. 

When Tiribazus issued a summons, calling 
on all who were willing to listen to the terms of 
peace sent down by the king to present them- 
selves, the invitation was promptly accepted. At 
the opening of the conclave Tiribazus pointed to 
the king's seal attached to the document, and 
proceeded to read the contents, which ran as 
follows: "The king, Artaxerxes, deems it just 
that the cities in Asia, with the islands of 
Clazomenae and Cyprus, should belong to him- 
self; the rest of the Hellenic cities he thinks it 
just to leave independent, both small and great, 
with the exception of . . . three, (which) 
are to belong to Athens as of yore." 

Death of Agesilaus. 

As Agesilaus was returning from Egypt he 
fell ill and died. His friends, in order the more 
conveniently to convey him to Sparta, enveloped 
his body, as they had no honey, in wax and so 
carried it home. — Nepos. 

And you may also to this day see Agesilaus's 
spear kept in Sparta, nothing differing from that 
of other men. — Plutarch, Agesilaus. 



104 GREECE 

Spartans while in disorder, though the Lacedae- 
monians, the expertest and most practiced sol- 
diers of all mankind, used to train and accustom 
themselves to nothing so much as to keep them- 
selves from confusion upon any change of posi- 
tion, and to follow any leader, or right hand 
man, and form in order, and fight on what part 
soever dangers press. In this battle, however, 
Epaminondas with his phalanx, neglecting the 
other Greeks, and charging them alone, and 
Pelopidas coming up v/ith such incredible speed 
and fury, so broke their courage and baffled their 
art that there began such a flight and slaughter 
amongst the Spartans as was never . before 
known. And so Pelopidas, though in no high of- 
fice, but only captain of a small band, got as 
much reputation by the victory as Epaminondas, 
who was general and chief captain of Boeotia. — 
Plutarch, Pelopidas. 

After these events a messenger was des- 
patched to Lacedaemon with news of the calam- 
ity. He reached his destination just when the 
chorus of grown men had entered the theater. 
The ephors heard the mournful tidings not with- 
out grief and pain ; but for all that they did not 
dismiss the chorus, but allowed the contest to 
run out its natural course. What they did was 
to deliver the names of those v/ho had fallen to 
their friends and families, with a word of warn- 
ing to the women not to make any loud lamenta- 
tion, but to bear their sorrow in silence ; and the 
next day it was a striking spectacle to see those 
who had relations among the slain moving to 
and fro in public with bright and radiant looks, 
whilst of those whose friends were reported to 
be living barely a man was to be seen, and these 
flitted by v/ith lowered heads and scowling 
brows, as if in humiliation. — Hellenica II, Xeno- 
phofi. 



BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 103 

order that they might accomplish their journey 
with less suspicion. — Nepos. 

EPAMINONDAS — THEBAN SUPREMACY. 

Battle of Leuctra. — When the Lacedae- 
monians had made peace with the other Greeks 
and united all their strength against the The- 
bans only, not only subjection, as heretofore, 
but total dispersion and annihilation threatened, 
and Boeotia was in a greater fear than ever. 

Pelopidas, leaving his house, when his wife 
followed him on his way and with tears begged 
him to be careful of his life, made answer, "Pri- 
vate men, my wife, should be advised to look to 
themselves, generals to save others." — Plutarch, 
Pelopidas. 

Epaminondas chose out of the whole army 
the best and strongest of the soldiers, and placed 
them in that wing where he himself would com- 
mand. In the other he placed his weaker men, 
not to abide the enemies' charge, but by a soft 
and slow retreat to avoid the shock. And now 
the trumpets sounded a charge on both sides. 
The Lacedaemonians came on with both their 
wings in the fashion of a half -moon. On the 
other hand the Boeotians retreated with one of 
their wings, and charged fiercely on the enemy 
with the other. — Diodcrus. 

In the battle, Epaminondas, bending his 
phalanx to the left, that, as much as possible, 
he might divide the right wing, composed of 
Soartans, from the other Greeks, and distress 
Cleombrotus by a fierce charge in column on 
that wing, the enemies perceived the design, and 
began to change their order, to open and extend 
their right wing, and, as they far exceeded him 
in number, to encompass Epaminondas. But 
Pelopidas with the three hundred came rapidly 
up, before Cleombrotus could extend his line, and 
close up his divisions, and so fell upon the 



102 GREECE 

Sparta, Having Represented Greece in Nego- 
tiating THE Peace With Persia, Feels 
Strong Enough to Encroach 
Upon Other Powers. 

Pelopidas, the Lacedaemonian, v/hen he was 
leading an army against Olynthus, an ally of 
Athens, and marching through the territory of 
Thebes, possessed himself of the citadel of 
Thebes, which is called the Cadmea, and this he 
did of his own private determination, not from 
any public resolution of his countrymen. For 
this act the Lacedaemonians removed him from 
his command of the army and fined him a sum 
cf money, but did not show the more inclination, 
on that account, to restore the citadel to the 
Thebans, for after the Peloponnesian War was 
ended, and Athens subdued, they supposed that 
the contest must be between them and the 
Thebans, and that they v/ere the only people 
who would venture to make head against them. 
¥/ith this belief they committed the chief posts 
to their own friends, while they partly put to 
death and partly banished the leading men of the 
opposite party ; and amongst them Pelopidas was 
expelled from his country. 

Almost all these exiles had betaken them- 
selves to Athens. — Nepos. 

Pelopidas, though one of the youngest, was 
active in privately exciting each single exile, 
and often told them at their meetings that it 
was both dishonorable and impius to neglect 
their enslaved and engarrisoned country, and 
lazily contented with their own lives and safety 
to depend on the decree of the Athenians. — 
Plutarch, Pelopidas. 

Twelve, whose leader was Pelopidas, quit- 
ting Athens in the daytime, with a view to reach 
Thebes when the sky was obscured by evening, 
set out with hunting dogs, carrying nets in 
their hands, and in the dress of countrymen, in 



BATTLE OF MANTINEA 105 

Pelopidas Takes Philip as a Hostage. — 
Pelopiclas marched into Macedonia, where 
Ptolemy was then at war with the king of 
Macedon, both parties having sent for him to 
hear and determine their dixferences and assist 
the one that appeared injured. When he came 
he reconciled them, calling back the exiles; and 
receiving for hostages Philip, the king's brother, 
and thirty children of the nobles, he brought 
them to Thebes, showing the other Greeks how 
wide a reputation the Thebans had gained for 
honesty and courage. This was that Philip who 
afterwards endeavored to enslave the Greeks. — 
Plutarch, Pelopiclas. 

Battle of Mantinea. — Wonderful to my 
mind was the pitch of perfection to which 
Epaminondas had brought his army. There was 
no labor which his troops would shrink from, 
either by night or by day; there was no danger 
they would flinch from, and, with the scantiest 
provisions, their discipline never failed them. 
And so, when he gave his last orders to them to 
prepare for impending battle, they obeyed with 
alacrity. He gave the word; the cavalry fell to 
whitening their helmets, the heavy infantry of 
the Arcadians began inscribing clubs as the 
crest on their shields, as though they were 
Thebans, and all were engaged in sharpening 
their lances and swords and polishing their 
heavy shields. When the preparations were 
complete and he had led them out, his next 
movement is worthy of attention. First, as was 
natural, he paid heed to their formation, and 
"*n so domg seemed to give clear evidence that he 
intended battle; but no sooner was the aimy 
drawn up in the formation which he preferred 
than he advanced, not by the shortest route to 
meet the enemy, but towards the westward-lying 
mountains which face Tegea, and by this move- 
ment created in the enemy an expectation that 



106 GREECE 

he would not do battle on that day. In keep- 
ing with this expectation, as soon as he arrived 
at the mountain region he extended his phalanx 
in long line and piled arms under the high 
cliffs, and to all appearances he was there en- 
camping. The effect of this maneuver on the 
enemy in general was to relax the prepared 
bent of their souls for battle. Presently, how- 
ever, wheeling his regiments, which were march- 
ing in column, to the front, with the effect of 
strengthening the beak-like attack which he pro- 
posed to lead himself, at the same instant he 
gave the order, "Shoulder arms, forward," and 
led the way, the troops following. 

When the enemy saw them so unexpectedly 
approaching, not one of them was able to main- 
tain tranquillity ; some began running to their 
divisions, some fell into line, some might be seen 
bitting and bridling their horses, some donning 
their cuirasses, and one and all were like men 
about to receive rather than to inflict a blow. 
He, the while, with steady impetus pushed for- 
ward his armament like a ship-of-war prow for- 
ward. Wherever he brought his solid wedge to 
bear he meant to cleave through the opposing 
mass and crumble his adversary's host to pieces. 
He had so much the mastery at his point of at- 
tack that he caused the whole of the enemy's, 
troops to take to flight. 

But after himself had fallen, the rest of the 
Thebans were not able any longer to turn their 
victory rightly to account. Though the main 
battle line of their opponents had given way, not 
a single man afterwards did the victorious 
hoplites slay, not an inch forward did they ad- 
vance from the ground on which the collision 
took place. Though the cavalry had fled before 
them, there was no pursuit ; not a man, horse- 
man or hoplite did the conquering cavalry cut 
down ; but, like men who have suffered a de- 



MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY 107 

feat, as if panic-stricken, they slipped back 
through the ranks of the fleeing foemen. — Hell- 
enica, II, Xenophon. 

Thebes, as well before Epaminondas was 
born as after his death, was always subject to 
some foreign power, but, as long as Epaminondas 
held the reins of government, it was the head 
of all Greece. Hence it may be understood that 
one man was of more efficacy than the whole 
people. — Nepos. 

Macedonian Supremacy. 

Philip 

Takes Olynthus. — Philip made an expedi- 
tion against the cities of the Hellespont, of 
which two were betrayed into his hands. Then 
he made against Olynthus, an ally of Athens, 
By bribing the chief magistrates, he entered the 
city by treachery and plundered it and sold all 
the citizens for slaves, and exposed to sale all 
the prey and plunder upon the spear, whereby 
he put all the rest of the cities into a terrible 
fright. 

Then he bountifully rewarded such as had 
behaved themselves with courage and valor, and 
having exacted vast sums of money from the 
richest of the citizens of the cities round about, 
he made use of it to corrupt many to betray 
their country, so that he himself often boasted 
that he had enlarged his dominion more by his 
gold than by his sword. 

In the meantime, the Athenians being jeal- 
ous of the growing greatness of Philip, ever 
after sent aid to them whom he invaded by his 
arms, and despatched ambassadors to all the 
cities to look to their liberties, and to put to 
death such of their citizens as should be discov- 
ered to go about to betray them, promising 
withal to join with them upon all occasions. At 



108 GREECE 

length they proclaimed open war against Philip. 

After the taking of Olynfehus, he set forth 
specious sports and recreating plays, and invited 
a great number of strangers to his feasts; and 
in thr. midst of his cups would talk courteously 
and familiarly with them, and drink to many, 
and reach over the cup to them with , his own 
hands. To many he gave rich gifts, and made 
large and liberal promises to all, to the end his 
kindness and generosity might be bruited abroad 
by them that had had the experience. — Diodorits. 

Takes Elatea.— Philip, being in amity with 
many of the Grecians, made it his chief busi- 
ness to bring under the Athenians, thereby with 
more ease to gain the sovereignty of Greece. To 
that end he presently possessed himself of 
Elatea, and brought all his forces thither, with 
a design to fall upon the Athenians, hoping 
easily to overcome them, in regard they were 
not, as he conceived, prepared for war, by rea- 
son of the peace lately made with them. 

After the taking of Elatea, some hastened in 
the night to Athens, informing them that Elatea 
was taken by the Lacedaemonians, and that 
Philip was designing to invade Attica with all 
his forces. The Athenian commanders, surprised 
with the suddenness of the thing, sent for all 
the trumpeters, and commanded an alarm to be 
sounded all night : upon which the report flew 
through all the parts of the city, and fear roused 
up the courage of the citizens. As soon as day 
appeared, the people, without any summons from 
the magistrate, as the custom was, all flocked to 
the theater. To which place, as soon as the com- 
manders came with the messenger that brought 
the news and had declared to them the business, 
fear and silepce filled the theater, and none who 
were used to influence the people had a heart to 
give any advice. And although a crier called 
out to such as ought to declare their minds what 



ALEXANDER 109 

was to be done in order to their common se- 
curity, yet none appeared who offered anything 
of advice, in the present exigency. The people 
therefore in great terror and amazement cast 
their eyes upon Demosthenes, who stood up and 
bid them be courageous, and advised them fur- 
therwith to send ambassadors to Thebes, to treat 
with the Boeotians to join with them in defense 
of the common liberty. — Diodorus, XVI. 

Battle of Chaeronea, Under Philip. — 
Alexander, earnest to give an indication of his 
valor to his father, charged with a more than 
ordinary heat and vigor, and being assisted with 
many stout and brave men, was the first tl^at 
broke through the main of _ the enemy next to 
him, with the slaughter of many, and bore down 
all before him; and when those that seconded 
him did the like, then the regiments next to the 
former were broke to pieces. The king, himself 
likewise in the head of this regiment, fought 
with no less courage and resolution ; and that the 
glory of the victory might not be attributed to 
his son, he forced the enemy, opposed to him, to 
give ground, and at length put them to a total 
rout, and so was the chief instrument of the vic- 
tory. — Diodoms, XVI. 

Philip's joy for this victory was artfully 
concealed. He abstained from offering the usual 
sacrifices on that day; he did not smile at table, 
or mingle any diversions with the entertain- 
ment ; he had no chaplets or perfumes ; and, as 
far as was in his power, he so managed his 
conquest that none might think of him as a: con- 
queror. He desired that he should not be called 
king, but general, of Greece. — Justin. 

Alexander 

Youth. — Whenever Alexander heard Philip 
had taken any town of importance, or won any 
signal victory, instead of rejoicing at it alto- 



110 GREECE 

gether, he would tell his companions that his 
father would anticipate everything and leave him 
and them no opportunities for performing great 
and illustrious actions. For being more bent 
upon action and glory than either upon pleasure 
or riches, he esteemed all that he should receive 
from his father as a diminution and prevention 
of his own future achievements; and would have 
chosen rather to succeed to a kingdom involved 
in troubles and wars, which would have afforded 
him frequent exercise of his courage, and a 
large field of honor, than to one already flourish- 
ing and settled, where his inheritance would be 
an inactive life and the mere enjoyment of his 
wealth and luxury — Plutarch, Alexander. 

Alexander Subdues Greece. — Alexander 
was but twenty years old when his father was 
murdered and he succeeded to a kingdom beset 
on all sides with great dangers and rancorous 
enemies. For not only the barbarous nations 
that bordered on Macedonia were impatient of 
being governed by any but their own native 
princes, but Philip likewise, though he had been 
victorious over the Grecians, yet, as the time 
had not been sufficient for him to complete his 
conquest and accustom them to his sway, had 
simply left all things in a general disorder and 
confusion. It seemed to the Macedonians a very 
critical time ; and some would have persuaded 
Alexander to give up all thought of retaining the 
Grecians in subjection by force of arms, and 
rather to apply himself to win back by gentle 
means the allegiance of the tribes who were de- 
signing revolt. But he rejected this counsel as 
weak and timorous, and looked upon it to be 
mere prudence to secure himself by resolution 
and magnanimity than to encourage all to tram- 
ple on him. In pursuit of this opinion he re- 
duced the barbarians to tranquillity, and put an 
end to all fear of war from them, by a rapid 



BATTLE OF GRANICUS 111 

expedition into their country as far as the river 
Danube. And hearing the Thebans were in re- 
volt, and the Athenians in correspondence with 
them, he immediately marched through the pass 
of Thermopylae, saying that to Demosthenes, 
who had called him a child while he was in 
Illyria and a youth when he was in Thessaly, he 
w^ould appear a man before the walls of Athens. 

The Thebans, indeed, defended themselves 
with a zeal and courage beyond their strength, 
being much outnumbered by their enemies. But 
when the Macedonian garrison sallied out upon 
them from the citadel they were so hemmed in 
on all sides that the greater part of them fell in 
the battle ; the city itself being taken by storm, 
was sacked and razed. 

After this Alexander received the Athenians 
into favor. Soon after, the Grecians, being as- 
sembled at the Isthmus, declared their resolution 
of joining with Alexander in the war against the 
Persians, and proclaimed him their general. — 
Plutarch, Alexander. 

Battle op Granicus. — Darius's captains, 
with large forces, were encamped on the bank 
of the river Granicus, and it was necessary to 
fight, as it were, in the gate of Asia for an en- 
trance into it. Alexander immediately took the 
river with thirteen troops of horse, and ad- 
vanced against whole showers of darts thrown 
from the steep opposite side, which was covered, 
with armed multitudes of the enemy's horse and 
foot, notwithstanding the disadvantage of the 
ground and the rapidity of the stream. How- 
ever, he persisted obstinately to gain the pas- 
sage, and at last with much ado making his way 
up the banks, which were extremely muddy and 
slippery, he had instantly to join in a mere con- 
fused hand-to-hand combat with the enemy be- 
fore he could draw up his men, who were still 
passing over, into any order. For the enemy 



112 GREECE 

pressed upon him with loud and warlike out- 
cries, and charged horse against horse, with 
their lances ; after they had broken and spent 
these, they fell to it with their swords. And 
Alexander, being easily known by his buckler 
rnd a large plume of white feather on each side 
of his helmet, was attacked on all sides, yet es- 
caped wounding, though his cuirass was pierced 
by a javelin in one of the joinings. While they 
were thus engaged, a Persian commander came 
up on one side of him, and, raising himself upon 
his horse, gave him such a blow with his battle- 
axe on the helmet that he cut off the crest of it, 
with one of his plumes, and the helmet was only 
just so far strong enough to save him that the 
edge of the weapon touched the hair of his head. 

That the Grecians might participate in the 
honor of his victory, he sent a portion of the 
spoils home to them, particularly to the Athe- 
nians three hundred bucklers. All the plate and 
purple garments, and other things of the same 
kind that he took from the. Persians, except a 
very small quantity which he reserved for him- 
self, he sent as a present to his mother. — 
Plutarch, A lexander. 

Battle of Issus. — The general senate of 
Greece made a decree to send fifteen ambassa- 
dors to present a golden crown to Alexander, in 
congratulation of his victory at Issus. — Diodorus, 
XVII . 

Conquest of Egypt. — When Alexander was 
master of Egypt, designing to settle a colony 
of Grecians there, he resolved to build a large 
and populous city, and give it his own name. 

He went to visit the temple of Ammon. 
This was a long and painful, and, in two re- 
spects, a dangerous journey; first, if they should 
lose their provision of water, as for several days 
none could be obtained ; and, secondly, if a vio- 
lent south wind should rise upon them, while 



NEW CIVILIZATION 113 

they were travelling through the wide extent of 
deep sands, as it is said to have done when 
Cambyses led his army that way, blowing the 
sand together in heaps, and raising, as it were, 
the whole desert like a sea upon them, till fifty 
thousand were swallowed up and destroyed by 
it. All these difficulties were weighed and rep- 
resented to Alexander; but he was not easily 
to be diverted from anything he was bent upon. 
For fortune having hitherto seconded him in his 
designs, made him resolute and firm in his 
opinions, and the boldness of his temper raised 
a sort of passion in him for surmounting diffi- 
culties. — Plutarch, Alexander. 

Alexander Encourages His Soldiers. — 
Having with him in Asia, at one time, the choice 
of his men only, he spoke to them to this ef- 
fect : that hitherto the barbarians had seen them 
no otherwise than as it were in a dream, and if 
they should think of returning when they had 
only alarmed Asia, and not conquered it, their 
enemies would set upon them as upon so many 
women. However, he told them he would keep 
none of them with him against their will, they 
might go if they pleased; he should merely enter 
his protest, that when on his way to make the 
Macedonians the masters of the world he was 
left alone with a few friends and volunteers. 
When he had thus spoken to them, they all cried 
out they would go along with him whithersoever 
it was his pleasure to lead them. — Plutarch, 
Alexander. 

Mingling of Macedonian and Persian 
Civilization. — Alexander more and more accom- 
modated himself in his way of living to that of 
the natives, and tried to bring them, also, as 
near as he could to the Macedonian customs, 
wisely considering that whilst he was engaged 
in an expedition which would carry him far 
hence, it would be wiser to depend upon the 



114 GREECE 

good-will, which might arise from intermixture 
and association as a means of maintaining tran- 
quillity than upon force and compulsion. In or- 
der to this, he chose out thirty thousand boys, 
whom he put under masters to teach them the 
Greek tongue, and to train them up to arms in 
the Macedonian discipline. — Plutarch, Alexander, 

Campaign in India. — Now intent upon his 
expedition into India, Alexander took notice that 
his soldiers were so charged with booty that it 
hindered their marching. Therefore, at break of 
day, as soon as the baggage wagons were laden, 
first he set fire to his own and to those of his 
friends, and then commanded those to be burnt 
which belonged to the rest of the army. An act 
which in the deliberation of it had seemed more 
dangerous and difficult than it proved in the 
execution, with which few were dissatisfied; for 
most of the soldiers, as if they had been in- 
spired, uttering loud outcries and warlike shout- 
ings, supplied one another with what v/as abso- 
lutely necessary, and burnt and destroyed all 
that was superfluous, the sight of v/hich re- 
doubled Alexander's zeal and eagerness for his 
design. — Plutarch, Alexander. 

Death of Alexander. — As soon as the re- 
port of his death was confirmed, all the barbar- 
ous nations, whom he had shortly before sub- 
dued, lamented for him, not as an enemy, but 
as a father. The mother, too, of King Darius, 
who, though she had been reduced, after the 
death of her son, from the summit of royal dig- 
nity to the state of a captive, had, till that day, 
through the kindness of the conqueror, never felt 
weary of life, committed suicide when she heard 
of the death of Alexander ; not that she felt more 
for an enemy than she had felt for her son, but 
because she had experienced the attention of a 
son from him whom she had feared as an enemy. 
— Justin. 



ALEXANDER 115 

Traits of Alexander's Character. — 
Alexander was very handsome in person, exceed- 
ingly fond of incurring danger, and strictly ob- 
servant of his duty to the Deity. In regard to 
the pleasures of the body, he had perfect self- 
control. He was very clever in recognizing 
what was necessary to be done, when others 
were still in a state of uncertainty, and very 
successful in conjecturing from the observation 
of facts what was hkely to occur; very re- 
nowned for rousing the courage of his soldiers, 
filling them with hopes of success, and dispelling 
their fear in the midst of danger by his own 
freedom from fear. Therefore even what he had 
to do in uncertainty of the result he did with the 
S'-catest boldness. He was also very clever in 
getting the start of his enemies and snatching 
from them their advantages by secretly fore- 
stalling them, before anyone even feared what 
was about to happen. He was likev/ise very 
steadfast in keeping the agreements and settle- 
ments which he made. Finally, he was very 
sparing in the expenditure of money for the 
gratification of his own pleasures ; but he was 
exceedingly bountiful in spending it for the bene- 
fit of his associates. — Anabasis, VII, Arrian. 

Incidents in His Life. — Am.ong the treas- 
ures and other booty that was taken from 
Darius, there was a very precious casket, which, 
being brought to Alexander for a great rarity, he 
asked those about him what they thought fittest 
to be laid up in it; and when they had delivered 
their various opinions, he told them he should 
keep Homer's Iliad in it. 

He was so very temperate in his eating 
that v/hen any rare fish or fruits were sent himi 
he would distribute them among his friends, and 
often reserve nothing for himself. 

When he perceived his favorites grow so 
luxurious and extravagant in their way of living 



116 GREECE 

and expenses, that one wore silver nails in his 
shoes, that another employed several camels, only 
to bring him powder out of Egypt to use when 
he wrestled, and that another had hunting nets 
a hundred furlongs in length, that more used 
precious ointment than plain oil when they went 
to bathe, and that they carried about servants 
everywhere with them to rub them and wait 
upon them in their chambers, he reproved them 
in gentle and reasonable terms, telling them he 
wondered that they who had been engaged in so 
many single battles did not know by experience 
that those who labor sleep more sweetly and 
soundly than those who are labored for, and 
could fail to see by comparing the Persians' man- 
ner of living with their own, that it was the 
most abject and slavish condition to be volup- 
tuous, but the most noble and royal to undergo 
pain and labor. 

"Are you still to learn," said he, "that the 
end and perfection of our victories is to avoid 
the vices and infirmities of those whom we sub- 
due?" And to strengthen his precepts by ex- 
ample he applied himself now more vigorously 
than ever to hunting and warlike expeditions, 
embracing all opportunities of hardship and 
danger. 

At one time, as one of the common soldiers 
was driving a mule laden with some of the king's 
treasure, the beast grew tired, and the soldier 
took the load upon his own back and began 
to march with it, till Alexander, seeing the man 
so overcharged, asked what was the matter; and 
when he was informed, just as the soldier 
was ready to lay down his burden for weariness, 
"Do not faint now," said he to him, "but finish 
the journey, and carry what you have there t^ 
your own tent for yourself." — Plutarch, Alex- 
ander. 



N D 



ill ^k 



Accadians,ll. 

.'vogospotaml, 91. 

Ag-esilaus, character of 96 
aids Asiatic Greeks, ,98 
called from Persia, 99 
battle of Chaeronea, 99. 

Ag-is, 84. 

Alcibiades befriends Peri- 
cles, 69; expedition to Sici- 
ly, 78; accused of sacri- 
lege, 79; aids Sparta, 80, 
S4; character, 83; general 
of Athenian fleet, 88; re- 
turn to Athens, 89. 

Alexander, battle of Chae- 
ronea, 109; youth, 109 
subjug'ation of Greece, 110 
battle of Granicus, 111 
battle of Issus, 112; con- 
ciuest of Egypt 112; ming- 
ling- of Macedonian and 
Persian civilizations, 113; 
campaign in India, 114; 
death 114: traits of char- 
acter, 114; incidents in 
life, 115. 

Ammon, 112. 

Antalcidas, 101. 

Archidamus, march against 
the Helots, G.5; invasion of 
Attica, 67. 

Ari;;tagoras, 42. 

Aristides, 62. 

Artaphernes, 42. 

Assurnazirpal, 17. 

Assyria, 17. 

Babylonia, 11. 
"'^ison, 21. 
Bosphorus, 89. 

Callimachus, 52. 

Cambyses, 112. 

Canathrum, 100. 

Chaeronea, battle under 
Agesilaus, 99; battle un- 
der Phillip, 109. 

Chaldaea, 11. 

Chase, Assvrian, 11. 

Cimon. 62, 63. 

Cleombrotus, 103. 

Cbomenes, 44. 

Clean condemns Pericles, 
69; sei.ge of Sphacteria, 
75. 

Conon, 93. 



Corcyra, 66. 
Critias, 96. 

Croesus, enmity toward Per- 
sia, 37; oracles, 51. 

Darius, 47. 
Decelea, 84. 
Demosthenes, 73. 
Dog's grave, 61. 

Eighteenth dynasty, S. 
Epaminondas, battle of 

Leuctra, 103; battle of 

Mantinea, 105. 
Ephialtes, 57. 
Esarhaddon, 21. 
Eretria, 5 0. 

Flood, 11. 

Four Hundred, 87. 

Ghizeh, 1. 

Great Pyramid, 1. 

Gylippus, 80. 

Haminurabi, 14. 

Harmosts, 95. 

Hatasu, 8. 

Hebrews, 23. 

Hellespont, 54. 58. 

Helots, revolt of 65, siege of 

Sphacteria, 74. 
Hermes, 78. 
Hill of Mars, 59. 
H'l-am, 23, 24. 
Histiaeus, 44. 

Immortals, 56. 

Ionia conqviered by Lydia, 

40; conquered by Persia, 

40; revolt, 42. 

Tjeonidas, 55. 

Leuctra, 103. 

Eong Walls. 66, 93, 95. 

Lyeurgu's, 26. 

Lydia, 39. 

Lysander, 91. 

Mantinea, . 105. 
Marathon, 50. 
Mardonius, 48, 61. 
Megabates, 42. 
Memnon, 9. 
Messenians, 65. 
Melon, 78. 



118 INLEX , ': ; 

Miletus, 48. lleet, S6; army restores 

Naxos, 43, 64. democracy of Athens, 87. 

Nicias', 78. Sardis, 17. 

Nineteenth dynasty, 10. Sargon II, 18. 

Segesta, 77. 

Omens, 14. yelinus, 77. 

Sennacherib, 20. 

Pausanius, 62. . !-'icily, 77. 

Pelopidas exiled from Socrates, 78. 

Thebes, 102; battle or Solomon, 14. 

Leuctra, 103. Solon, 32. 

Peloponnesian War, 66. Sphacteria, 73. 

Pericles, 68. Sumerians, 14. 

Pharnabazus, 8_8. Syracuse, 80. 
Philip taken as a hostage, 

104; takes Olynthus, 107; Thermopylae, 55. 

takes Elatea, 108; battle Thirty tyrants, 96. 

of Cliaeronea, 109. Thothmes I. 8. 

Phoebidas, 94. Thothmes III, 9. 

Phoenicia, 24. Tiglath Pileser I, 17. 

Piraeus, 66, 95. Tiglath Pileser, II, 18. 

Plague, 67. Tissaphernes, 85. 
Plataea, battle under Mar- 

donius, 61; siege, 69. Xanthippus, 60. 

Pylos, 73. Xerxes, bi'idge across Hel- 
lespont, 54; battle of 

Ramses II, 10. Thermopylae, 55; at 

Athens, 58; battle of Sa- 

Salamis, 59. lamis, 61; return, 61. 
S'amos. station for Athenian 



\tr JL/ 






s^ ■ 




